Advocates for children in care have criticised the prediction by the Child and Family Agency, Tusla, that it could take over a year to implement recommendation to transfer the inspection of privately-run children's residential centres to the independent watchdog, HIQA.
The organization, EPIC, was reacting to findings by the Ombudsman for Children that the Health Service Executive failed children by allowing some residential care centres to break the law.
The Ombudsman found that the HSE failed children in some residential care centres by allowing the facilities to remain open when it should have known their owners were breaking the law.
The Ombudsman also said the HSE delayed its normally pre-announced inspections of centres because of staff shortages and appeared to think monitoring them was a discretionary activity.
Niall Muldoon’s report was prompted by successive government failures to implement the Ryan Commission’s recommendation that all children’s residential settings be inspected effectively and independently.
While State-run units have been overseen by the HIQA for some years, 127 facilities run by private for-profit and voluntary concerns continue to be inspected by Tusla.
Dr Muldoon said some of the almost 350 particularly vulnerable children living in those facilities because fostering is not an option for them have received inadequate services because the HSE allowed their centres to remain open when it should have known they were in breach of statutory regulations.
The Ombudsman said the HSE seemed to think monitoring centres was a discretionary activity judging by the shortage of monitors.
Tusla has rejected a finding that its predecessor may have damaged children, saying it diverted resources to cover for personnel shortfalls.
Dr Niall Muldoon told RTÉ's Morning Ireland that there was a concern for the children when their review found inconsistencies and discrepancies in policy across the country.
He said monitoring of centres between inspections was not done on a consistent basis.
Dr Muldoon said there were centres that did not have action plans to meet standards that had been set.
He said Tusla is now implementing standardised training and an action plan to have one national quality control policy for all the centre governance.
He said they have plans to publish all reports in an effort to increase transparency. Dr Muldoon said there are negotiations for HIQA to take over the role.
He said the residential centres are generally for children over 12 years of age when they cannot be placed with a foster family.
"The HSE have four different regions and they developed over 20 years so they've all developed their own separate policies and procedures. So, we found there was inconsistency, which straight away creates a concern when you're looking at the same standards across the country, but the way they're been monitored and inspected is different."
Dr Muldoon recommends that HIQA should promptly begin inspecting the private and voluntary sector - which costs the taxpayer €49m annually.
He welcomed the Department of Children and Youth Affairs' efforts to advance the transfer of oversight functions to the independent watchdog.
Tusla supports transfer of inspections to HIQA
Tusla has said it supports the transfer of inspections of private and voluntary children's residential centres from it to HIQA, but has warned this could take up to two years.
Speaking to RTÉ's News at One, Tusla's Director of Quality Assurance, Brian Lee, said there had been significant improvements in the inspection of the centres since the Ombudsman carried out his report.
Mr Lee said Tusla took over monitoring of the centres in January 2014.
He said: "When we took over there certainly were legacy issues that we took from the HSE, but since then we have created a single national inspectorate. There are consistent practices in place, we have improved practice and we have full coverage of staff across all areas and we certainly have increased the inspection rate by 22% in the past year as well."
Mr Lee said HIQA was a "better fit" for these type of inspections, but it would be a year or two until that occurs.
He added: "We are working very closing with the Department of Children and Youth Affairs and with HIQA to move this along. There's nothing impeding us from supporting this process but it's in the hands of the Department and HIQA to move this forward. There are certain things that need to be put in place, like changes in regulations and standards."
