Government ministers and HSE officials are set for a crisis meeting today to discuss newly released figures showing that at least 188 young people in HSE care, or in contact with social services, have died in the past decade. 
The HSE released the figures on Friday, but acknowledged the number could rise further if social worker teams around the country found evidence of further deaths, according to an Irish Times report. The figures were released after mounting criticism over the failure of the HSE to provide information to the Department of Health.
Just over a fortnight ago, the HSE had said that 23 young people in care had died, while a week later they said that 37 young people had died. Last Friday, they revised the figure upward by 151.
They said that the new figure was based on a wider definition of deaths, which included children who were known to social services, or young people aged 18-21 who were in aftercare.
The majority of deaths were due to unnatural causes (102). Most of these young people died as a result of suicide (26), drug overdoses (19), unlawful killings (12), road traffic incidents (18) and other accidents (27). A further 86 deaths were linked to natural causes or health conditions.
Asked about the latest figures yesterday and how they were gathered Ms Harney said: “I don’t want to deal with the numbers at the moment because we need some clarity.” She expects this clarity to be provided at today’s meeting with the HSE.
“I think it’s disappointing that it’s taken so long to get the data . . . we should have the information to hand in a much more timely fashion for many, many reasons,” Ms Harney said.
“Minister Andrews asked for this data I think in March and it’s slowly coming to light now and to be quite honest with you that’s not good enough,” she added.
The HSE also said on Friday that the number of deaths was comparable with other jurisdictions such as the UK and the US.
The figures were published as it emerged that 40 allegations of child abuse have been made against foster carers living in two local health office areas in Dublin.
In three of the cases the carers had not undergone Garda vetting, which is mandatory under national guidelines.
The HSE told Minister Andrews about the abuse cases in March following an audit of its foster care services, which revealed serious deficiencies in a system catering for 90 per cent of the 5,500 children in State care.
Records released under the Freedom of Information Act show that 25 allegations of child abuse against foster carers have been made in the Dublin North West area. Two of the foster carers in these cases were still awaiting Garda vetting and the HSE had not assessed and approved 10 of the carers, as it is required to do.
A breakdown of the allegations includes: three cases of emotional and physical abuse; four cases of emotional abuse; five cases of physical abuse; six cases of neglect; three cases of sexual abuse; one case of emotional abuse and neglect; and a single case that combines physical, emotional abuse and neglect.
Meanwhile, a damning new report shows that some children in State care have not had a visit from a social worker for up to 10 years or more.
The report, based on an audit of more than 1,000 foster-care files by the Health Information Quality Authority (Hiqa) in Dublin, also shows that more than 500 child protection and welfare concerns regarding children in foster care were never addressed or resolved by social work teams.
The head of Hiqa, Tracey Cooper, warned HSE chief executive Brendan Drumm in a letter that the findings were very serious for children in its care and also warned Minister for Health Mary Harney and Minister for Children Barry Andrews that the HSE had “no assurance that the carers are suitable people, children have no opportunity to complain if they are unhappy or unsafe”.