John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)

I welcome this debate and the emphasis on accountability therein. I wish to discuss social services within the HSE, and I hope I will be afforded some latitude to deal with this issue and specifically the care of young children.

I wish to raise the case of a 14 year old girl who died in my home town of Dungarvan on Sunday night. In 2005 I was contacted by a person working within the community in the town who was well aware of a situation with a particular family and was extremely concerned about the welfare of individuals within that family. She made her opinion clear that unless residential care was provided for members of the family, individuals could either die or cause the death of another. She believed the prospect to be reasonably likely.

I wrote to the HSE in the strongest and starkest terms I could, outlining the case and expressing its extreme urgency. I received no reply from the HSE and two months later I wrote to the executive again, indicating the case was very urgent and action needed to be taken. Again, I did not receive a reply.

In 2004 a case conference was held, with a recommendation emerging that these children had to be put into residential care. The recommendation, from the HSE itself, was never acted upon, which is the crux of the issue. We received a response to this case from the HSE today, with representatives explaining there had been an improvement in this particular case. I dispute that claim.

I had not previously stated this, but the initial concern came from within the HSE. It came from an employee of the HSE who went to a community worker and expressed her extreme concern that residential care was not being provided for these children. The determination had been made that if necessary, the HSE would have to go to court to get a supervisory order. If gardaí in Dungarvan were asked if they thought the situation had improved since 2004, they would characterise such a statement as laughable. Other parties would agree, and the proof is in the pudding. The child died from inhaling vapours from a can of deodorant.

We are talking about accountability, but there does not appear to be a great deal of it throughout the public services. The HSE is a good example of this. The issue should be faced up to not just in this instance, but throughout the public services. That process will start in these Houses.

There has been a systems failure, which could have resulted in this child's death. There should be an immediate review of social services and how they deal with vulnerable children. I spoke to Professor Brendan Drumm today and I believe he agrees there must be a report on the matter. I will demand that such a report be independent rather than an internal inquiry carried out by the HSE. I have tried to contact the Minister for Health and Children about the matter and she has tried to call me back. If anybody considered this matter reasonably, they would firstly have an inquiry into this specific case, but there should also be a review of the HSE's dealings with children in the social services area.

The situation is extremely grave because we are dealing with the most vulnerable people in our society. I hope I get a decent answer from the Minister once this debate is concluded.

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