AN INQUIRY into the deaths last year of a family of four in Monageer, Co Wexford, is expected to be published shortly.
Minister for Children Barry Andrews received the report last October which is expected to recommend the introduction of an out-of-hours emergency social work service to help deal with crisis situations involving children.
Adrian Dunne (29), his wife Ciara (24) and their two children, Leanne (five) and Shania (three) were found dead in their home in April 2007, three days after the family visited an undertaker to arrange how the couple and their children were to be buried.
It later emerged that authorities had been made aware of a possible risk to the safety of the two children.
A spokesman for Mr Andrews said yesterday it was the Minister’s intention to publish “as complete a version of the report as possible” shortly.
For legal reasons, drafts of the report have been circulated to interested parties in recent months.
The members of the inquiry team included former assistant Garda Commissioner Jim McHugh and Leonie Lunny, chief executive of the Citizens Information Board. The team was chaired by barrister Kate Brosnan.
The inquiry was originally set up in June 2007 but began its work in January 2008, following the completion of a Garda report into the incident.
The inquiry team has been investigating the circumstances surrounding the deaths, documenting the involvement of State services and looking into how the various bodies co-operated with each other.
The inquiry team is also instructed to make recommendations to the Minister for Health and Children Mary Harney and the Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern as to how such an event may, as far as possible, be avoided in future.
