Two thousand children were taken into State care last year, the Health Service Executive has confirmed.

In addition, 26 girls in State care became pregnanty, including some under the age of consent.

The figures were obtained by the Irish Daily Mail under the Freedom of Information Act. An independent review into the deaths of children in care was presented to the Government just before Christmas.

It also emerged that 218 youngsters vanished from their care homes, according to official figures, with many disappearing for days or weeks on end, and one of them – Daniel McAnaspie – found killed.

The HSE has declined to specify the ages of the girls who become pregnant, saying it could serve to identify them.

Garda investigations are understood to have been taken in some cases where the girl involved was young, but it is not known if any prosecutions resulted.

Of the 2,000 children taken into care in the four HSE regions during 2010, 619 were in the South, 492 were in the West, were 475 in North Dublin and the North East, and another 456 in South Dublin and the Midlands.

The largest number of youngsters were taken from their homes simply because their family was ‘unable to cope’, according to the figures.

A total of 556 children ended up in care because their parent or parents were not able to manage, with another 415 kids taken from their homes due to neglect.

But the revelation that so many end up pregnant or go missing from care will cause concern among children’s rights campaigners.

In the combined North Dublin and North East region, the problem of youngsters disappearing was most pronounced: with 70 cases of missing children and ten pregnancies.

For the Southern Region, 46 children disappeared while five girls in their care became pregnant.

In the West of Ireland, cases involving 40 missing children were reported with a further four pregnancies listed on records.

The combined South Dublin and Midland region reported 62 disappearances and seven pregnancies, the HSE said.

The HSE said that when looking after vulnerable children, it was important to have a “balance of normality” in their care setting.

They said: “For some children, particularly adolescents, they periodically disengage from services and absent themselves, often referred to as going missing.

“This can be repeated for short periods, hours, and in more extreme cases can be prolonged to days.” 

The figures show that up to 300 children a year are being taken into care because of sexual, physical and emotional violence in their own homes.

The statistics, covering the calendar year 2010, also show that 153 children ended up in care homes because of physical abuse at home.

Physical abuse, often manifested in unexplained injuries through accidents, also includes incidents where parents ‘fabricate [or] induce illness’.

Emotional abuse was also listed as the reason for 66 children ending up in care during 2010, according to the figures.

The HSE guidelines said that emotional abuse is deemed sufficiently dangerous for a child when ‘abusive interactions dominate and become typical of the relationship.’

Meanwhile, the Government has been urged not to allow its focus on the economy lead to the neglect of its commitment to children.

Speaking following a seminar on child protection in UCC, the Ombudsman for Children Emily Logan said when Ireland ratified the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child in 1992, it signed up to making five-yearly progress reports to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Irish Times reports.

However, Ireland had missed its last deadline and its report was now overdue.

Ms Logan also said she had written to the Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald and offered her office as an agency to oversee the investigation of all child deaths in State care in line with best practice on the issue internationally.

A review into the deaths of children in care presented to the Government last month, but not yet published, found that some 115 children died from unnatural causes while in State care between the years 2000-2010.

The report compiled by a team under child law expert Geoffrey Shannon and Norah Gibbons, director of advocacy at children’s Charity Barnados, was completed in just under a year but is currently being reviewed by the office of the Attorney General.