Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to reply to this Adjournment matter. The tragic circumstances of the death of Daniel McAnaspie are particularly harrowing and all the more difficult for his family and friends. As Deputy Shatter mentioned, the case is the subject of a murder investigation being carried out by the Garda and therefore I am limited in what I can say about the specifics of the case.

Daniel was initially placed in the care of the HSE in 2003 and I understand that efforts were made since 2009 to stabilise his living environment. The boy went missing on 25 February 2010 and unfortunately his body was identified on 16 May 2010. The HSE has confirmed that Daniel's case will be reviewed in accordance with the recently published HIQA guidance for the HSE for the review of serious incidents including deaths of children in care.

The review will involve a full investigation into the care provided to Daniel McAnaspie and the circumstances leading up to his disappearance and death. Any concerns raised by family members, and other relevant parties, will be addressed in the course of the review, which will be conducted under an independent chairperson. The review into Daniel McAnaspie death will commence without delay, with a review team of three members, external to the HSE, drawn from a national review panel soon to be finalised. The primacy of the Garda investigation will need to be taken into account by the review group. It should be noted that I wrote to the HSE's assistant national director for children and families on March 25, when it was reported that the child was missing, requesting that a review under the HIQA guidance commence.

The HIQA guidance was produced in response a commitment in the Government's implementation plan following the publication of the Ryan report. I recently established the independent review group on child deaths. The group has been asked to examine existing information on deaths of children in care over the past ten years so as to validate the categorisation of those children who died from natural causes. The group is to examine existing reviews and reports completed by the HSE, or by others on behalf of the HSE, on children other than those who died from natural causes and based upon this information, provide an overall report for publication. The group's report will be laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas and published. The case of Daniel McAnaspie will be notified to the group.

The HSE is committed to a comprehensive review of Daniel's care to be undertaken in line with the guidance from HIQA so that any lessons can be learned in terms of the provision of services to young people in care. Deputy Shatter mentioned there may be more than 23 cases, which is the figure I mentioned in the Dáil earlier this year, and this is probably true. Part of this is associated with the widening of the ambit of the review to include those children notified to the child protection system but not in care as well as children who have already left the care system but are under the age of 21. This is not the only reason I dare say that the numbers may increase; it may also be due to poor record keeping on the part of the HSE. Nevertheless, this is a very challenging area and I believe the changes we introduced since the implementation plan following the Ryan report will bring transparency to this crucial area.

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