Monageer inquiry report published

[Posted: Tue 12/05/2009 www.irishhealth.com]

The report on the Monageer tragedy says it did not discover any single definitive motive behind the deaths of the Dunne family.

It found that Adrian Dunne frequently misinformed service providers by providing misleading information.

The report criticises both the Gardai and HSE on the tragedy.

Mr Dunne took his own life after killing his wife and two children in April 2007.

The inquiry team found that Adrian Dunne was the driving force behind what they the organisation and carrying out of the killing of the rest of his family.

It also did not discover any single definitive motive behind the deaths.

The inquiry also found that if Gardai or social services had called to the Dunne family home during the course of the weekend, it is likely the tragedy would not have been averted.

The report says Gardai should have considered contacting Adrian Dunne's family to advise them of his visit to an undertaker on the Friday before the deaths.

The inquiry team say that a fundamental problem has been the State's failure to provide "out-of-hours" social work services to ensure a response to all serious child protection and welfare issues.

The report makes a number of recommendations on actions and service improvements relating to both the HSE and the Gardai.

It recommends a national out-of-hours social work service be put in place to ensure an appropriate response to all serious child protection and welfare concerns.

Some of the conclusions and recommendations of the report, in addition to large tracts of the main body of the report, have been blacked out, presumably for legal reasons.

The HSE, in response to the report, said: "while the report acknowledges the difficulties for both the HSE and the Gardai in preventing familicide, we must redouble our efforts to ensure all our community services are working together to support as a priority individuals and families in the greatest need."
 
The HSE says it has has been working on a series of programmes since 2007 that will result in the report's recommendations as they relate to its areas of responsibility being implemented. It will also support other agencies in implementing recommendations as they relate to them.
 
It said that from From early June 2009, the HSE will operate an expanded emergency place of safety service for children.

This will enable Gardaí to place children in an appropriate safe environment – in approved foster families - when they have to remove children from a situation of extreme risk outside of normal working hours.

The HSE says is developing a more integrated multi-disciplinary approach to out of hours services "within available resources", to ensure that people seeking services outside normal working hours can be provided with appropriate advice, information and support, and in emergency situations, access to specialist staff such as professionals working in the areas of mental health and suicide prevention.

The HSE says it has established a taskforce recently to standardise policies and procedures for child protection and welfare services across the country, to be completed by the end of May, and the phased implementation will begin in June.

"The publication of the Monageer Report will allow the Task Force to take account of the recommendations in the report in relation to child care services," the HSE added.

Anyone who is emotionally distressed by the content of the report or media coverage of the report can phone the Samaritans on 1850 60 90 90 to talk in confidence.

The full report is available at...http://www.omc.gov.ie

hammer  Posted: 13/05/2009 16:05

Cover up. We owe children a lot more in this country than we actually provide !!

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