Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

This debate is not about any kind of political point scoring, because there is a genuine concern on all sides of the House about what is happening to children who are often in extreme situations. However, the Minister of State has to be more forthcoming with the details about those children who died in circumstances which in any other jurisdiction would warrant an immediate examination and report. I am not talking about some kind of judicial inquiry, but a report on the facts of a death which would also be subject to an inquest, which would put information into the public domain about the circumstances and causes of the death, and which would in turn cause the HSE to explain publicly the circumstances leading to the death of a young person in custody.

I am very concerned that a culture of secrecy has developed in the HSE which is about secrecy for its own sake, and which seeks to avoid public discussion by concerned citizens about the best thing to do for very troubled children whose families may not be in a position to help them, or whose families may have absolutely failed them. That is the sad truth and that is why the State often has to step in for the parent. The HSE has developed an unnecessary culture of secrecy. It seems to me that there are endless cycles of reporting, but nothing gets published and therefore, the general public does not learn and the general authorities do not learn, including politicians, about what needs to be done to address a very difficult situation.

Why is the report on the DF case not in the public domain? How long is that report? The Minister of State hinted in his comments that in some cases where the facts are self-evident, no further action is taken. That is not good enough, because the death of a child is always important, even if that child has led an unsuccessful and troubled life. I know many staff who work in these situations and it is very difficult, but we are only going to learn if we are not afraid to talk about it in public. We know from other examples that keeping things secret represents the road to ruin.

My other difficulty with HSE policy is that everything in the HSE leads to crisis intervention. The dots are not joined up, so if a teacher becomes aware of a difficult situation, it is passed on like a game of "pass the parcel". As the child gets more difficult, he or she drops out until he or she is in total crisis. We know that some of these children sought crisis intervention themselves, but because it was not available, they could not access it and they later died.

The Minister of State needs to publish the information. He should not hide behind the fact that there are sensitivities. There are ways of getting this information out so that we can learn and try to introduce some kind of support framework over the lifetime of these children. We know that the problems usually start with the family when the child is very young. These things do not just happen overnight.

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