It has emerged that 27 children and young people in State care or
known to the child protection services have died in the past 12 months.
According to a recent report in The Irish Times, seven of
the deaths were due to suicide, four were drug overdoses and two were
homicides, the Health Service Executive (HSE) said yesterday.
A further
seven died of natural causes such as diseases, four died in road
traffic incidents and three in other accidents.
The news comes after Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald
revealed that responsibility for taking at-risk children into care is to
be taken away from the HSE, and given to a new child protection
agency.
A series of reports last year showed that 188 children had died
in its care in the past decade.
In December, it revised upwards its
figure for deaths to 199 between January 1, 2000, and April 30, 2010.
An internal HSE audit last year revealed that children in State care
were at risk of being placed with “unsafe carers,” while a report by the
Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) showed that children
who were being abused by their foster parents were forced to remain with
them, despite the fact that social services were made aware of the
situation by members of the public and teachers
The new figures cover the first 12 months since the executive
introduced a new system for recording the deaths of children in care on
March 10, 2010.
Under this system, the executive notifies the Health
Information and Quality Authority of all deaths of children in care and
children known to the child protection services.
It also records the
deaths of young adults between 18 and 21 years who were previously in
State care or are in receipt of aftercare services.
Gordon Jeyes, HSE national director for children and family services,
said the death of any child is shocking, but the figures for deaths of
children in care or known to care services in the Republic were “not out
of kilter” with the figures in Britain.
The annual rate of death recorded there was 160 per year; however,
the Irish system investigates children who died of natural causes, which
is broader than the categories of deaths recorded in Britain.
The HSE figures show just two of the 27 children who died in the past
12 months were in a State care setting such as foster care or a
residential unit.
The largest group of deaths occurred among children
who were known to the child protection services but were not in State
care when they died.
Ten young adults, who had left State care, lost
their lives.
The new system for recording child deaths was introduced following
concern over the HSE’s child protection service and lack of transparency
regarding child deaths.
A HSE report into the death of Tracey Fay was
withheld for years before it was finally leaked by Fine Gael TD Alan
Shatter in March 2010.
Fay died in January 2002 at the age of 18 of a
drug overdose, four years after being admitted to care.
Last year the Government established an independent review group to
examine the case files relating to children and young people who had
died and were known to the child protection services.
The group, which
includes child law expert Geoffrey Shannon and Barnardos director of
advocacy Norah Gibbons, is due to report in the next few months.