Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

How extensive is the report on the DF case? Is it true that in some cases those reports are a mere couple of pages? That is important because the Minister is giving the impression that some of the reports are so extensive and involve significant numbers of people and that is a reason for not publishing them, but I understand that some of the reports are extremely brief and may only run to, at most, a couple of pages, which may be recommendations. Why should those kinds of reports not be issued?

If a child dies in the unfortunate circumstances we are describing, is there a protocol in the Department that the HSE has to notify the Minister and that the timeline that has been referred to by others then commences? The Minister said he spoke with his British counterpart about two cases in the UK, including Baby P, but the hallmarks of most of the UK cases - even though the inquiries have caused convulsions in UK social services - have been that they have all taken place within a fairly rapid timeframe. Does the Minister have a timeframe for cases when a child dies in the care of the State involving some kind of reporting mechanism to the Minister, and that if the circumstances are not natural then an inquiry takes place and there is a procedure whereby within a three month or six month timeframe a preliminary report is made and then a public report? What is happening is that we in this House are relying on the work of journalists in particular to highlight most of those cases.

See this speech in context