Gardai are searching for a two-year-old sister of the baby boy whose death from serious head and brain injuries is the subject of a criminal investigation.
She vanished after her 10-day-old brother died in the emergency department of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Co Louth, on January 8.
The girl, who is also being sought by police in the British midlands, was previously taken into care by the Health Service Executive (HSE) but returned to her parents shortly afterwards.
She was initially picked up by gardai using the Child Care Act, which empowers officers to seize a minor if they believe him or her to be at risk. When the HSE returned her to her parents, it was apparently unaware that her two older siblings had been taken into protective care by the British authorities.
"As this matter is subject to an ongoing garda investigation, the HSE would be precluded from making any comment," it said.
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Fergus Finlay, the chief executive of Barnardo's, has called on Barry Andrews, the children's minister, to establish the facts of the case. "The minister must institute an inquiry," he said. "All the facts must be made known to him." Finlay described the death of the baby as "appalling beyond belief".
Gardai detained a woman on suspicion of assault in connection with the baby's death last Thursday. A man was also arrested on suspicion of withholding information.
The investigation is trying to establish what happened to the baby before he was taken to hospital by his parents.
The infant, who weighed less than 6lbs, had been taken by his parents to a house in Lusk, north Dublin where six adults were present, along with a number of children.
Witnesses are said to have given differing accounts of the events surrounding the baby's death, with some claiming a child accidentally dropped him. Detectives are pursuing a different line of inquiry.