A former member of the Eastern Regional Health Authority has said she raised questions with the board and government ministers about the provision of child care in the region as far back as 2002.

The Dail will this evening debate the unpublished reports into the deaths of children in state care, following on from the publication by Fine Gael yesterday of the “TF” case.

The girl involved died alone in 2002 after years in state care.

Clinical psychologist Dr Siobhan Barry told Lunchtime with Eamon Keane that questions about child care services were ruled out of order by the CEO of the ERHA – and she then took the matter further without much success.

“I wrote to the Minister for Health and complained – so I wrote to Michael Martin to complain that I felt that legitimate questions, at the very least enabling us to see what was going on in terms of childcare, had been disallowed” she said.

“My recollection is that he told me he would pass that material over to Minister Hanafin – who was the Minister for Children at that time” she added.