DÁIL COMMITTEE:THE HEALTH Service Executive (HSE) has said it has not published any reports into the 20 children who it says have died while in State care in the last 10 years.
Speaking to the Dáil Committee on Public Accounts, Laverne McGuinness, director of integrated services with the HSE, said two reports had been finalised and the recommendations from them would be published shortly.
Following the release of the report on the death of teenager Tracey Fay by Fine Gael deputy Alan Shatter, Ms McGuinness also said the HSE was in touch with the foster parents of Ms Fay’s two children, now aged nine and 10.
Ms Fay had been in the care of the State when she died, aged 18, and when she had her two children.
Under questioning from Fianna Fáil deputy Seán Fleming, Ms McGuinness said the HSE had not published reports into the deaths for a number of reasons. These included that personal data about children and their families appear in the reports, some of which was “very disturbing”.
The organisation was almost ready to publish in relation to two reports and was taking legal advice on a further two, Ms McGuinness said. There was no timetable to publish the remainder, which were not in a format that would allow for publication.
New guidelines, produced with the Health Information and Quality Authority would be used in the presentation of future reports, Ms McGuinness said. This would lead to a speedier publication of reports’ recommendations.
Mr Fleming said it was very worrying that not a single report had been published by the HSE.
The head of HSE, Prof Brendan Drumm, said there was a danger that if all reports were published the organisation could end up in the courts because people would not want to contribute and they would become bogged down in legal difficulties.
“Getting the co-operation of people could be prolonged and enormously expensive,” he said.
Mr Fleming asked if the HSE had contacted Ms Fay’s children, given that HSE assistant national director for children and families Phil Garland had raised the issue of the two children on RTÉ radio yesterday.
Ms McGuinness said the children’s foster parents and maternal grandparents had been contacted within the last 24 hours.
“The whole issue about how we ended up discussing anything on this report is unfortunate,” Prof Drumm said.
“What is most unfortunate is the report has been languishing there for eight or 10 years,” committee chairman Deputy Bernard Allen responded.
