Taoiseach denies ‘cover-up’ of deaths in care
The angry denial came as opposition leaders dismissed Brian Cowen’s explanation that emergency legislation would be needed to force the Health Service Executive (HSE) to hand vital information over to a Government probe trying to establish the exact figure of deaths. Estimates range from 23 to 200.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said the Government was either incompetent or engaged in a cover-up as existing legislation should allow him to say definitively how many youngsters died in state care.
Mr Kenny said there is already an obligation in law for agencies such as the HSE to report “adverse incidents” to the Clinical Indemnity Scheme under the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) Amendment Act 2000.
“My contention is that in requiring the information about the numbers who have died, emergency legislation is not necessary. You should have been able to inform the House of the numbers as a consequence because that information would have been transmitted to the Clinical Indemnity Scheme by law.
“These powers have been here since 2000. Now, either you didn’t know, which is incompetence, or you did know, which amounts to a cover-up. Which is it?” Mr Kenny demanded.
Mr Cowen hit back saying the Clinical Indemnity Scheme only covered incidents which had occurred in hospitals and was therefore not applicable.
“There are other legal provisions that impinge on the privacy of the individual, their circumstances. There are certain consent requirements etc, this is not a simple area of law and it must be dealt with properly,” he said.
A probe set up in March to establish how many young people have died in state care is yet to receive a single file from the HSE as it claims this would go against legal advice to hand such information over.
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said if some estimates of 200 children dying in care over the past decade prove to be accurate, that would make the mortality rate for youngsters under the responsibility of the HSE 10-12 times higher than for the rest of the population of this age group.
Mr Gilmore said such an occurrence would be “an extraordinary state of affairs” and he simply did not understand why the Government could not provide an accurate figure.
The Labour leader also queried the need for new legislation saying the Coroner’s Bill 2007, which has yet to be enacted, and the Commission of Investigation Act 2004, already enable information to be exchanged.
In response, Mr Cowen again said both pieces of legislation failed to adequately deal with the issue.
