The Health Service Executive has said it is concerned that any cases of reported child abuse have not been addressed adequately.
The comment came after a report by the Ombudsman for Children, Emily Logan, said she had received complaints that many children who were reported to be suffering child abuse had to wait several months for support from the HSE.
The HSE's Director of Primary, Continuing and Community Care, Aidan Browne, said that in the two years during which the Children's Ombudsman received complaints about the management of 94 children, 13,000 abuse complaints were received by the health services.
About 4,000 of these were confirmed, leading in many cases to children being taken into care.
Ms Logan urged legislators to evaluate all HSE child protection services to address issues raised in the complaints, including the inappropriate placement of some children in adult psychiatric institutions.
In less than two years, she received 61 complaints about the HSE's handling of disclosures of all forms of abuse affecting 94 children and teenagers.
It was alleged that often telephone calls to the HSE were not returned and that the complainant had to go to great lengths to report abuse to an appropriate person.
There were complaints of delays ranging from several days to a number of weeks in getting the HSE to respond.
Many reported further delays of several months before the child was supported, leaving him or her in fear of the relative or neighbour he or she had accused and feeling betrayed by trusted adults.
Ms Logan said that anything less than a comprehensive review of child protection policy, practice and procedure would fall short of what is required to put things right.
