THE MINISTER for Children has been urged to establish an inquiry into the death of a homeless teenager who spent most of his life in the hands of the State’s care system.
Danny Talbot (19) died a fortnight ago following a suspected drugs overdose and was receiving aftercare from the Health Service Executive.
The young man’s extended family say his case involved a series of failures and missed opportunities by the child protection system to provide him with proper care and protection.
Records show that social services were warned on several occasions about suspected neglect and abuse of Danny while in primary school.
While he was placed in foster care after the death of his father at the age of nine, his behaviour began to deteriorate. He ended up in numerous emergency care placements, including “out-of-hours” hostels for homeless young people.
Chief executive of Barnardos Fergus Finlay described the case as a “scandal” and said lessons needed to be learned over why the boy did not receive the care and support he needed.
“Danny Talbot died because his life spiralled completely out of control because of neglect and abuse. This could have been prevented. That’s a scandal, in my view,” Mr Finlay said. “We need to know why there wasn’t the level of care and support there should have been.”
In addition, the boy’s extended family, as well as Fine Gael spokesman on children Alan Shatter, are seeking an independent inquiry into the handling of the boy’s case.
The HSE said that while Mr Talbot was not the subject of a care order, it will carry out a “case management review as part of good practice and routine procedure”.
A spokeswoman for Minister of State for Children Barry Andrews said it had received a representation on the matter and which it referred to the HSE to deal with. “The HSE has statutory responsibility for the management and delivery of health and social services under the Health Act 2004,” the spokeswoman said.
Mr Shatter said Mr Talbot’s story reflected the experiences of other young people with a history of State care. “There needs to be an independent inquiry and it’s essential that a report is published, detailing the extent of the dealings of the health board with Danny Talbot.
“Despite the Minister for Children appearing to acknowledge the failures of our childcare services and the need for greater transparency, there is still obsessive secrecy about these issues.”
