The family of teenager Daniel McAnaspie, who was murdered while in State care, has called for a full public inquiry into his death.
Catriona McAnaspie said it was clear her brother did not receive the help he needed from the HSE and that the family were determined to ensure Daniel's death would not be in vain.
In a statement released this evening, Ms McAnaspie said the family would make certain the HSE would not be allowed to hide its failures in a private internal report.
"Questions will be asked publicly and answers will be demanded," she said. "It is only through rigorous public examination of all the circumstances of Daniels' death that we stand any chance of saving the lives of other children who are at risk."
Daniel (17), originally from Finglas, Dublin, went missing in February while in the care of the HSE.
His body was found dumped in a drain on farmland at Rathfeigh, Co Meath, by a local landowner last Thursday afternoon. A postmortem revealed he had been stabbed to death.
The murdered teenager had been described as “vulnerable”. He was one of six siblings, and both of his parents are dead. He left school aged 14 and had difficulties reading and writing.
Daniel was living at a HSE property in Donabate, north Co Dublin, run by HSE personnel. He failed to return there on the night of February 25th. The HSE is liaising with the Garda as part of the investigation into his murder.
The HSE said it would fully investigate the care provided to Daniel and the circumstances leading up to his disappearance and death.
Sabrina McAnaspie, Daniel’s aunt, told RTÉ that, since entering HSE care, Daniel had spent time in after hours care and police stations where she understood he had been beaten and robbed.
“You’re talking about a 17-year-old young fellow who has come from a proper family and doesn’t know anything about the street,” she said.
She said that before Daniel went missing, she had a meeting with the HSE at which she warned that Daniel would be injured or could injure somebody if he spent more time on the streets.
“I blame these people,” she said. “If they had just listened to us, Daniel would still be here today”.
The HSE said any concerns raised by family members, and other relevant parties, will be addressed in the course of its review into Daniel's case, which is to be conducted under an independent chairperson.
The review is to get under way in the near future when a panel of childcare experts and an independent chairperson have been appointed, as recommended under Health Information and Quality Authority guidance.
"The unexpected death of a child under any circumstances is a tragedy. The tragic death of a child while in care is an extremely serious matter and requires careful and detailed consideration to ensure that the lessons of this tragic event can be learned," the HSE said.
Fine Gael spokesman on children Alan Shatter described Daniel's death as tragic and said the response of the HSE seemed inadequate.
“It is no longer satisfactory that we are told by the HSE of its intention to ‘learn lessons’ arising out of what went wrong," he said. "There is widespread concern that the HSE has utterly failed to learn lessons from what went wrong."
Labour TD for Dublin North West Roisin Shortall said Daniel was failed by the people who were supposed to be looking after his interests, and that many questions must be answered by the care and education systems.
