Child review under way 'in weeks'

The review of cases of children who have died while in the care of the State is expected to get under way "in a matter of weeks", a member of the newly appointed review group said today.

The Independent Review into Deaths of Children in care was set up yesterday by Minister for Children Barry Andrews to investigate the HSE’s own reviews of the deaths of children in its care since 2000.

The review group is composed of child law expert Geoffrey Shannon and Norah Gibbons of Barnardos, while a third, international figure has not yet been appointed. It is expected the third member will be an independent person of international standing.

Speaking at a media briefing in Dublin today, Ms Gibbons said the Irish public was fixed on the notion that “yet again” tragic events have happened to children who are in the care of the State.

There are currently over 5,000 children in the care of the State, and Ms Gibbons said it was “extremely important” measures are put in place to build confidence in the system of care.

Mr Shannon said the group will initially examine 23 cases of children who have died while in the care of the State.

Mr Shannon said he was giving a “cast-iron guarantee” the inquiry would be “robust in all aspects” and said if the group felt constrained by the terms of reference that they would revisit the issue with the Minister and would ask him to expand their remit.

He said independence would be “at the very core” of the review and insisted the group will be "fearless” in ensuring all of the information uncovered is brought to the attention of the public.

Mr Shannon said his hope was to establish a standard approach where reviews would be carried out around the circumstances surrounding all children who die while in State care.

"What we hope will be achieved by this is that the child death review will provide a pathway to the making of recommendations to ensure that all children in care are heard and where children die in the care of the State that that information is made public," he said.

Ms Gibbons said it was important that inquiries are carried out quickly. "It is important when something as tragic as a death happens that there is clear and quick and competent inquiry carried out to explain what happened," she said.

The group will interview social workers and will invite families of children who died to meet - in confidence - with the review group to discuss what happened. “We won’t be laying down any tramlines for them to keep within. The children are not there to speak with us, but their families will have rich information to give to us,” she said.

Ms Gibbons said the group would propose a time line for the review of the case but could not do so before looking at the cases.

"The extent of it and the length of time it will take is just impossible for us to say as you can imagine. We haven't yet looked at the material and will not be in a position to do so for a short number of weeks", she said.

The review group will examine cases of all of the children who died in State care since 2000 and will include children who had reached adulthood or young adulthood.