Andrews to question why number of deaths in care exceeded estimates

SENIOR HSE figures are to be asked to meet Children’s Minister Barry Andrews to explain why the number of deaths of children in care is substantially higher than previous figures provided to the Government.

The meeting is likely to be called by Mr Andrews in the coming days after it emerged yesterday that 37 children died while in care in the past decade. The revelation came just a day after Health Minister Mary Harney said she was confident the figure would be 23.

Fine Gael last night questioned the accuracy of the figure, described as “absolutely reliable” by HSE chief executive Brendan Drumm.

There are growing expectations that another figure — of other children and young adults who died in the same timeframe but not in care at the time of death — will be higher than expected when it is delivered next Friday.

There were also calls last night for future reports into the deaths of children in care to be diverted to a specially commissioned Oireachtas Committee and not back into the HSE.

Under new guidelines unveiled earlier this year by the Health Information Quality Authority (HIQA), an established investigative procedure was put in place and a panel has been appointed from which personnel will deal with cases as they happen.

However, the chief executive of the Children’s Rights Alliance, Jillian Van Turnhout, said those cases will still be passed back to the HSE at the end of the process and then on to the Social Services Inspectorate before being handed to the Office of the Minister for Children.

“The HIQA guidance is excellent but what happens is the report goes back into the HSE,” she said. “We think the report should go back into a nominated Oireachtas Committee.”

Six children have died in HSE care in the past three months, according to HIQA, and those deaths will be reviewed under the new guidelines.

Barnardos’ Fergus Finlay said he would like the panel that will review the deaths to operate on a statutory basis.

As for the 37 deaths revealed yesterday, Jennifer Gargan, director of the Irish Association of Young People in Care organisation, said: “This highlights the fact that there are serious deficiencies in the care of these very high-risk young people.”

She said more detail was needed as to the length of stay in the care system of those who died, and said it was possible that some of the lives lost through natural causes could have been saved if it was shown that their health problems were exacerbated by living on the streets or not receiving adequate medical attention.

While 18 children died of unnatural cases, including suicide and drug overdoses, another 19 died of natural causes.

The Government is hoping to draft legislation to facilitate the passing on of more detailed information regarding deaths of those who interacted with the care system to the members of the Independent Review Group, charged with looking back at those cases.

Mr Andrews is due to bring proposals to cabinet this Tuesday.