Minister for Children Barry Andrews said that information regarding the number of young people who have died while receiving State care has been passed to a review group investigating child deaths.
In a statement issued tonight following the publication of new figures by the Health Service Executive (HSE), Mr Andrews said there would be shock at the scale of the numbers who had died.
The HSE this evening announced that a further 151 vulnerable young people have died. This is in addition to 37 children who died while in formal State care disclosed last week.
“Following my request in March, this evening for the first time, the HSE has published figures in respect of children who died and were known to the child protection services or were young adults (up to the age of 21) in receipt of aftercare or who had been in care," said Mr Andrews.
"There will be shock at the scale of the numbers and behind each case is a child and family and we must bear their sense of loss in mind today," he added.
The Minister said the latest information would be forwarded to the independent panel established to review deaths of children while in State care.
He said the review undertaken by the panel would "provide the definitive account of how the State interacted with these children and the extent to which they were cared for or failed by the State."
Opposition parties said this evening that the latest figures provided by the Health Service Executive (HSE) on the number of children who have died while receiving State care are “shocking.”
Fine Gael said the new figures show the extent to which child care and protection services have failed children.
"It is not acceptable that 151 children about whom social services had a child protection concern died without any record being properly maintained with regard to their deaths and that it has required a sustained campaign by Fine Gael to obtain this information," said the party's front bench spokesman on children Alan Shatter.
He said the information published this evening failed to provide details on the number of children in the past decade reported to be ‘at risk’ who had died.
"It is a vital public interest that we know the true consequences for children reported to be ‘at risk’ of a failure by our child care services to take any action to assess that risk."
“The information published tonight is shocking. It is also scandalous that the HSE has yet again failed to provide information that the Dáil was promised over a year ago and has failed to make the full public disclosure promised by the Minister for Children," he added.
Mr Shatter called on Minster Barry Andrews to explain why the full comprehensive information promised to the Dáil has still not been published.
Sinn Féin said cuts to childcare services would further impact on more vulnerable young people.
“The latest figures from the HSE bring to 188 the number of children who died in the past decade either in State care or who were known to the social services. This is a truly shocking figure. It makes it all the more urgent that the HSE releases these files to the special investigation team established by the Minister of State for Children Barry Andrews," said the party's health and children spokesman Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin
“These figures come at a time when the Government is cutting back social welfare, education and health services in a way that hits marginalised families and vulnerable children worst. These are the essential supports which help address child poverty and neglect. Undermining these services through cuts will condemn more children,” he added.
Barnardos said the revelation that 61 of the children known to the HSE child protection services died of unnatural causes was not only a tragedy but also a disgrace.
"As a nation we must be appalled at the waste of young life and the Taoiseach and the Minister for Health and Children must take control of this situation immediately," said Barnardos chief executive Fergus Finlay.
"Everybody knows that the system is stretched to breaking point, is drastically under resourced and suffers from appalling structures and a lack of adequate political priority. If the most senior members of Government fail to address these glaring deficiencies, more and more tragedies will result," he added.
Barnardos called on the Government to instruct the HSE to release all relevant files and documentation to the independent review group without any delay so that we know what happened to these children and what we need to do to fix this broken system.
