A case in which a child in the care of the Eastern Health Board was "abandoned" on her parents' doorstep on Christmas Eve had enough in it for a "criminal investigation", the Dail was told last night.

Mr Dick Roche (FF, Wicklow) called for the new Minister of State for Health, Ms Mary Hanafin, to intervene and bring "finality" to this "quite scandalous state of affairs".

He said the child and its family were now in limbo because of the health board's activities in a case which he first raised in the Dail last June, recounting how the child was "taken from the family amid scenes of brutality".

Since then, Mr Roche said, the child had been abandoned on her parents' doorstep at Christmas. They were concerned because of previous dealings with the board that they "would fall foul of the health board yet again". They attempted without success to contact the board at the time to try to find out exactly where they stood with the child.

Mr Ivor Callely (FF, Dublin North Central), chairman of the Eastern Health Board, called for amendments to the Child Care Act to allow for information in such cases to be made available to public representatives.