The Health Service Executive has confirmed it has suspended new admissions to five nursing homes in counties Dublin and Wicklow.
The executive said similar notifications are due to be issued to two further homes in the same area.
The homes have been informed that they should not take in any new private admissions during the period of suspensions.
In all these cases, issues have been identified by HSE inspectors and a process to ensure remedial action is actively under way.
The executive said one of the homes is due to have its suspension lifted over the next week, having complied with all the recommendations of the inspectors.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio's Morning Ireland, Dr Tracey Cooper of the Interim Independent Health Information and Quality Authority said it will be responsible for carrying out nursing home inspections.
She said she hoped the body would be fully up and running early next year.
The HSE has, meanwhile, confirmed to RTÉ that one of the five is the Bedford House Nursing Home in Balbriggan, Co Dublin.
The home was mentioned yesterday by Fine Gael TD Fergus O'Dowd, using Dáil privilege.
Call for more clarity over nursing homes
Reacting to the news, Eamon Timmons of Age Action Ireland said the HSE needed to offer more clarity on the state of nursing homes.
The warnings to the homes follow recent inspections. They must now put a notice at their premises informing potential clients of the suspension.
None of the inspection reports is currently available on the HSE website, so the scale of the problem that led to each home being suspended is not yet known.
One of the homes was opened only last year by the Minister for Health, Mary Harney.
The owner of another of the homes said he had not yet been informed of the suspension following an inspection on Monday.
He was very upset and said their staffing ratio was higher than the industry norm.
In a statement to RTÉ, the HSE said that the inspectors were satisfied that an appropriate level of care was being provided to current residents.
The HSE acknowledges the suspension of nursing homes can have a significant impact on attending to the needs of clients but says it considered the matter seriously before taking action.
Yesterday the HSE said the publication of its inspection reports on the Internet showed how transparent the system was.
However as of last night only a small percentage of inspection reports were on the web. In Dublin only eight of 88 homes are covered. And inspection reports from only ten of the 26 counties are currently available.
