Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I offer my deepest sympathies and those of the Minister for Health to all parents and families who have experienced the tragic death of a child. Information on child deaths comes primarily from the national paediatric mortality register conducted by the HSE's National Office of Clinical Audit. The reporting provides vital information, which is used to improve our services and to prevent avoidable deaths.

The Department of Health is committed to reducing deaths in children across all age groups and has made considerable investment in this area. Specifically, the Department continues to engage with the Ombudsman for Children, the HSE, NOCA and other stakeholders to explore the need for a statutory child death review mechanism in Ireland. The aim of this consultation process by the OCO is to increase the awareness and understanding of the current practices in statutory services when a child dies from non-natural causes.

I thank Deputy Burke for bringing up this matter. He spoke about the recommendations, in particular the four he outlined. He is looking for a timeframe. I will come back to him with what is going to happen. I will definitely look into this and come back to the Deputy with a timescale as soon as I can.

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