THE TAOISEACH has received an assurance from Health Service Executive (HSE) chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm that the list of children who have died in State care will be completed by the end of this week, five weeks ahead of schedule.
Mr Cowen summoned the senior management of the HSE to Government Buildings yesterday and berated them for the agency’s failures in compiling the number of children under its care who have died in the past 10 years.
A list will also be compiled of children who were not under State care at the time of their deaths but that is expected to take some further time to complete.
According to a source, Mr Cowen did not mince his words when criticising the HSE’s handling of the issue.
“He did not draw back in his criticisms,” said the source. “He came out with both guns blazing.”
Besides Prof Drumm, the HSE delegation included its chairman Liam Downey and its assistant national director for children and families Phil Garland.
Mr Cowen was accompanied by Minister for Health Mary Harney and Minister of State for Children Barry Andrews.
Following the meeting, the Government spokesman said that Prof Drumm had undertaken to complete by the end of this week the clarification of how many children have died in State care since 2000. He said it would be furnished to Mr Andrews and to the two members of the independent review panel inquiring into all deaths since 2000, Geoffrey Shannon and Norah Gibbons.
“The HSE is also responding to the request for information regarding deaths of children known to the child protection services and persons over the age 18 who had recently been in care and subsequently died,” said the spokesman.
Last night, the HSE said its validation exercise to ensure “absolute clarity” on the number of children who have died in care in the past decade would be completed as soon as possible. It is understood that the number will be very close to the figure of 23, already officially confirmed.
The Health Information and Quality Authority became the latest body yesterday to criticise the HSE for not being able to provide figures for the numbers of children who have died in care.
A spokesman said: “It is unacceptable that the HSE is unable to clarify the number of children who have died in State care over the last 10 years.”
Fergus Finlay, chief executive of children’s charity Barnardos, called for the restructuring of the HSE into separate health and social services agencies.