CHARITIES CALL FOR 24-HOUR SERVICES; THE REACTION.

CHILDREN'S Minister Barry Andrews yesterday denied there was any question of a "cover-up" in the Monageer Inquiry.

He said large swathes of the report were blanked out due to "legal advice" and rejected claims of a "whitewash" made by the Dunne family's solicitor.

Child protection groups slammed the fact that the report made 26 recommendations but seven of these were blacked out.

Mr Andrews said he hoped the report would lead to "greater awareness of the needs of families and improve the response of service providers." But he admitted he would not be implementing the main recommendation of the report - an out-of-hours service to "ensure an appropriate response to all serious child protection and welfare concerns".

He said it would cost EUR15million to provide the service and the Government decided it was best to put money into existing services.

Fine Gael said it had serious concerns about the report. Wexford TD Paul Kehoe added: "The blame lies squarely with HSE services and structures. A 24- out-of-hours social work service must be put in place." The ISPCC and Barnados both also called for an outof-hours service.

Fergus Finlay of Barnados said: "We cannot continue to accept that families in crisis, and children in particular, outside of Dublin, may not get the response they need when they need it."

And Children's Rights Alliance chief Jillian van Turnhout added: "It is telling the first recommendation was the need for such a service" Mr Andrews said the post of National Director for Service Integration will be set up to ensure different strands of child protection work more closely together.

Other recommendations include that if a garda believes a child is at serious risk, the officer should take immediate action to ensure the safety of the child - by removing the child from parents if necessary.

CAPTION(S):

DENIAL Andrews yesterday