The Constitution did not prevent the children at the centre of the Roscommon absue case being taken into care,  Taoiseach Brian Cowen (pictured) has said.

In expressing sympathy to the children involved, Mr Cowen said that it had been made clear “by experts in this area that there was no constitutional hindrance to these children being taken into care”.

He said: “Obviously there was a problem in terms of how decisions were taken and whether they were justified in the circumstances and whether . . . various parts of the service had joined up and collaborated sufficiently to come to a different conclusion, clearly, than what they came to.”

However, Mr Cowen did say that work was ongoing on preparations for a referendum on the rights of children, but gave no indication of when that work might be completed, according to a report in the Irish Times.

His comments came after remarks made yesterday by child law expert Geoffrey Shannon to the effect that the passage of a children’s rights referendum would not have made any difference to the handling of the case.

Mr Shannon said that the Child Care Act of 1991 gave the social workers all the legal powers they needed to deal with the case effectively.

Mr Cowen’s statements were echoed yesterday by Minister for Children Barry Andrews, who said that a referendum would not have saved the children.

Speaking in the Dáil yesterday, he said that the health board had sufficient powers available to take them into the care of the State. Mr Andrews added that a revised wording on a constitutional amendment on children’s rights will shortly be brought to Cabinet.

The revised wording is being drafted after a number of Government departments expressed serious concerns about the wording produced by the Oireachtas All Party Committee chaired by Mary O’Rourke.

It is understood that department officials are worried that the current wording could expose the Government to significant legal costs in the future.

Meanwhile, Emily Logan, the children’s ombudsman, has continued to suggest that the case showed the need for a children’s rights referendum. Ms Logan said that the case indicated that the threshold was too high before children in neglect cases were seen as needing child protection.

However, figures from 2007 show that, of the more than 5,000 children in State care, 27 per cent are taken into care due to neglect, with a further 14 per cent of children taken into care because of the abuse of drugs or alcohol by other family members. Both of these factors were present in the Roscommon case.

The HSE is now to review whether any staff involved in the Roscommon case should be disciplined. Geoffrey Shannon said the results of that review should be published, in order to restore confidence in the child protection system.

He said there had to be accountability for the failure of the health service to rescue the six Roscommon children.

The family to which the children belonged were known to the health services from 1989, after the birth of the first child, up to 2004, when all the children were taken into care.

Mr Shannon, the Government’s special rapporteur on child protection, said nobody listened to the children even though they grew up under the nose of the HSE and nobody asked them for their views.

He said there had been too much deference by health service staff to providing family support in this case.

In a small number of cases families can be dangerous places for children, he said, and professionals assessing this case did not seem to appreciate that the threshold had been reached for getting a court order to protect the children long before the application for an order was made.