Children’s Ombudsman calls for child death review process to be implemented to aid bereaved families
Children’s Ombudsman Niall Muldoon said at present it was not possible to put an accurate figure on the number of children who die in Ireland unexpectedly each year. Picture: Maxwells
The Children’s Ombudsman has called for a child death review process to be implemented by the Government as an “urgent necessity” to aid bereaved families in their quest for transparency about how their children died.
Niall Muldoon called for the addition of child death reviews to Ireland’s health service to be made as soon as possible, saying the ongoing absence of a standardised process in the event of the loss of a child was “totally unacceptable at this point”.
At an event in Dublin to promote the case for child death reviews — a process which has been implemented as standard in many western countries — Mr Muldoon noted at present it was not possible to put an accurate figure on the number of children who die in Ireland unexpectedly each year.
A report on the matter compiled by the Ombudsman’s office, which had taken a year to finalise, drew on the stories of six bereaved families, who agreed for their story to be aired to underline the need for child death reviews as standard.
In each case, accessing information on the death in question from bodies such as the HSE and Tusla had proved close to impossible for the parents concerned.
As things stand in Ireland, there is no consistent review process for the unexpected deaths of children, and parents have no statutory right to information about what happened to their child.
Anne Winterlich, whose 14-year-old daughter Aoife died while on an excursion with Scouting Ireland at Hook Head in Wexford in 2014 during Storm Desmond, described the pain of having to take a civil action to achieve any accountability for Aoife’s death.
“Aoife was my only daughter. She was lovely, she was 14 and funny. She had everything going for her. She should have had her life,” she said.
She noted it took eight years from the start of her civil action against Scouting Ireland before she finally got to see the report the organisation commissioned privately in 2020.
Mrs Winterlich first brought Aoife’s case to the attention of the Ombudsman in 2018, when it became clear she would receive no answers as to what happened to her daughter and no oversight body was in a position to hold Scouting Ireland to account.
She said Scouting Ireland had only finally admitted full liability for Aoife’s death the day before the case was finally due to be heard in court. She said she did not want an apology. “I want them to admit that they failed in their duty of care,” she said.
Stephanie McGill Lynch, whose son Jake died by suicide in 2013 after being prescribed an anti-depressant, meanwhile described the manner in which families are treated after a child dies as “just shocking”.
She described seeking information as to what happened from the HSE’s child and adolescent mental health services (Camhs) as very difficult. “Even trying to get the child’s file, they wouldn’t hand it over. Your child is dead, get over it,” she said. “Our Jake mattered. Our Jake had a place in this world.”
“Now it’s 12 years later and we’re still none the wiser,” she said.
The Government included a commitment to implement a child death review process in the recent programme for government.
“They’ve said they’re going to do it,” said Nuala Ward, the Ombudsman’s director of investigations. “Now we are going to hold them to account.”
