The East Coast Area Health Board has until tomorrow to decide whether it will challenge the jurisdiction of the High Court to hold an inquiry into how a 15-year-old girl escaped from care and what efforts were made to find her before she was found dead in a Dublin city B&B almost a month later.
The board was to have indicated its position on jurisdiction to Mr Justice Kelly yesterday but Mr Patrick MacEntee SC, for the board, asked for more time to take instructions. He asked that the matter be adjourned to tomorrow.
Mr Justice Kelly granted the application but said he hoped the board's position might be established soon.
On Tuesday the judge said he wished to hold an inquiry into how Kim O'Donovan escaped from Newtown House, Co Wicklow, a premises operated by the South Western Area Health Board.
The escape was drawn to the attention of the High Court by the board on July 31st and a warrant was issued directing the Garda to search for, arrest and return the child. However, Kim was found dead of a suspected drugs overdose in a premises on Talbot Street, Dublin, on August 24th.
The parents of the dead girl have supported the proposal for an inquiry and the State has indicated it will not be making any challenge on jurisdiction.
Also yesterday, Mr John Doyle, a solicitor with Dillon Eustace solicitors, said he was appearing for the Star newspaper. He said it appeared that at Tuesday's hearing, a suggestion was made that the dead girl's B&B expenses were paid by a journalist and there was a link by inference with the Star.
Mr Doyle said a letter from Ms O'Donovan to Mr Justice Kelly, dated July 29th and received by the judge on July 31st, predated his client's first contact with the child. He said the child had sent the same letter to the newspaper.
Mr Doyle said the girl's expenses were in no way, directly or indirectly, paid for on behalf of the Star.
Mr Justice Kelly said his proposed inquiry does not involve the newspaper and he had not made any orders against it. He told Mr Doyle he was shown a copy of the Star which published an extract from the child's letter to him and a possible inference could have been drawn that a journalist with the paper might have been paying for her B&B but there was no evidence to that effect.
Mr Cormac Corrigan SC, for the parents of Kim O'Donovan, said he appreciated what Mr Doyle had said but his silence regarding the solicitor's remarks should not be taken to mean that was an end to the matter.