Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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225. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of children who died or were injured while in care in each of the past ten years to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3669/16]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The death of any child or young person is a tragedy, and a profound loss for their families and carers and I deeply sympathise with all those affected.In order to identify learning about how to better address the needs of vulnerable children and families, the National Review Panel (NRP) was established in 2010 to review serious incidents and deaths of children in care, in aftercare, and those known to Child Welfare and Protection Services. It is an independent body chaired by Dr Helen Buckley of Trinity College and its reports are published on the Tusla website.

As the National Review Panel was only established in March 2010, data for the years prior to this is unavailable in the format requested by the Deputy. Further information on the cases and the work of the Panel is published in the National Review Panel annual reports, which are available on the Tusla website.

The following table is a summary of the deaths of children and young people in care over the period 2010 to 2014.

Table 1: Number of Deaths notified for children and young people in care (National Review Panel Annual Report 2014)

For the information of the Deputy, I am also including the following table that sets out the deaths and serious incidents for children and young people who were in care, in an aftercare programme or were known to the Child Welfare and Protection Services.

Table 2: Number of Deaths and Serious Incidents notified for children and young people in care, aftercare or were known to the Child Welfare and Protection Services (National Review Panel Annual Report 2014)

For completeness, I would note that the Report of the Independent Child Death Review Group gives data on deaths of 196 children during the period of 1 January 2000 to 30 April 2010 who were in care (18%), known to social services (65%) or in aftercare (16%). This report is available on www.dcya.gov.ie.