The Eastern Health Board yesterday insisted it had not misled officials of the Department of Health and Children about its handling of a case in which a child was taken into care.
The Wicklow Fianna Fail TD, Mr Dick Roche, who raised the case in the Dail, said a team from another health board should be appointed to examine the EHB's handling of the case and to make recommendations on what should happen next.
In a Dail debate on Tuesday, the Minister of State for Health and Children, Mr Frank Fahey, said the case "bothers me more than any other that has come to my attention".
He added that he would be "deeply concerned" if the EHB had given him incorrect information. He complained that the EHB had failed to give him the information he required despite repeated efforts and that it had sought to hide behind the 1991 Child Care Act.
He said he had sought independent advice and was satisfied there was a very serious case to be answered by the board.
Yesterday, the executive of the EHB said it had "provided completely accurate information to the Department of Health and Children regarding the decision by a District Court judge that a child should be taken into care and the subsequent handling by board staff of a fostering application for the child.
"The executive had no wish to hide behind the provisions of the Child Care Act 1991. However, it was compelled to abide by the provisions of this Act, which stipulated that children in the care of the board were entitled to have the circumstances of that care treated with complete confidentiality."
The case concerns a two-year-old taken into care 2 1/2 years ago following an allegation of physical abuse. The child has been living with foster parents. An allegation of sexual abuse was later made. Attempts by the child's grandparents to foster the child were turned down by the EHB on the grounds, according to Mr Roche, that they were too old and in poor health.
Mr Roche said last night that the case was a complex one and the child's family was not without its problems - but the EHB had done nothing to help it to address these problems. In his dealings with the board he had been told contradictory stories and he was particularly angry about that, he said.