Analysis:Legislation exists to deal with critical child safety situations, writes Carl O'Brien Social Affairs Correposndent.
Of all the questions surrounding the tragic deaths of the Dunne family, one stands out: could the authorities have intervened sooner in their case?
It is still too early to say if the system failed, why the children were not removed into care, whether State agencies communicated properly with each other and if authorities were fully aware of their obligation to act.
Already an unseemly blame game is unfolding between authorities over who was responsible.
The State has a positive duty to protect the lives of children at risk where it becomes aware that they are at immediate risk of harm or injury. The two key authorities in this regard are the Garda and the Health Service Executive (HSE). The Childcare Act (1991) is aimed specifically at dealing with emergency situations, such as the one which came to the attention of the Garda last Friday.
It gives both the Garda and the HSE powers to intervene in a family in order to safeguard the welfare of a child in the short term.
The HSE powers are more limited. It may apply to the District Court to take out an emergency care order where it believes there is an immediate and serious risk to a child. This application should be made at the next available sitting of the local District Court (which in the case of Wexford, would have been this week).
The powers available to the Garda are more substantial. Section 12 of the Childcare Act fully empowers a garda to enter any house, without the need for a warrant, in order to remove a child from danger.
It cites two grounds where this may happen: where there are reasonable grounds to believe there is an immediate or serious risk to the health or welfare of the child; and where there are reasonable grounds for believing it would be insufficient to wait for the HSE to apply for an emergency care order from the courts.
As solicitor Geoffrey Shannon notes in his book Child Law, this measure is clearly intended to be used only in extreme circumstances.
The protocol is set out in Children First child protection guidelines.
While this states that the Garda and the HSE should work together and that decisions and actions should follow this joint consultation, it also says there "may be occasions when the Garda has to take immediate action to protect a child without first notifying the health board".
In these kinds of exceptional circumstances, it is the obligation of the Garda to deliver the child into the custody of the HSE as soon as possible.
If there is to be any inquiry into whether the State could have acted earlier, this is likely to become a crucial point.
Did the concerns regarding the Dunne family satisfy these exceptional circumstances? Was there an immediate and serious risk? Or did officials feel there was sufficient time to wait for an emergency care order to be taken out?
This latest tragedy comes almost two years to the day after a tragedy in the Wexford area highlighted the absence of social work support outside of office hours.
Sharon Grace, a troubled mother of two, had gone looking for a social worker on a Saturday evening in April of last year, but was told none would be available until the Monday morning.
Hours later the bodies of Sharon and her two daughters Mikahla (four) and Abby (three) were found in the Slaney river.
A year later, it is a national problem which continues to frustrate social workers.
Just last weekend, at the agm of the Irish Association of Social Workers, members voted to support a motion calling for out- of-hours child protection and community care social work teams on a national basis to meet the needs of children, young people and families.