HIQA has said child protection allegations concerning children in foster care in the Mid-West region were not managed in line with official policy.
The watchdog also said the allegations were not notified to the area's foster care committee in a timely way.
A report published today criticises the failure to allocate social workers to a number of fostering households in the area and the infrequent safeguarding visits to those households.
It also finds that there was no record of garda vetting for a number of foster carers and a substantial number of members of fostering households aged 16 years and over did not have garda vetting.
The Mid-West, comprising Clare and north Tipperary and the city and county of Limerick, is the second most deprived of Ireland's 17 Tusla service areas.
The report says that due to the number of prospective foster carers awaiting assessments, its three social work teams were helped by private fostering agencies to carry them out.
The service was found to be seriously non-compliant with three of the eight standards inspected.
The report states that while foster carers received adequate training to fulfil their role, they were not supervised or supported in line with official standards.
General foster care assessments were judged to be comprehensive and of good quality but they were not timely and there were long delays in the completion of assessments of foster carers who were related to their charges.
There was no record of garda vetting for a number of foster carers and a substantial number of members of fostering households aged 16 years and over did not have garda vetting.
Inspectors identified a number of fostering households where neither the carers nor the children had been allocated a social worker and the report says safeguarding visits to these households were infrequent.
Inspectors requested and received written assurances that these foster carers have since received appropriate safeguarding visits.
The report found that child protection concerns and allegations were not managed in line with the Children First policy and were not notified to the foster care committee in a timely way.
There was also a lack of effective recruitment and retention strategies in the area, resulting in an insufficient number of foster carers to meet the needs of the service.
Tusla says it must up its game
The Chief Operations Officer at Tusla welcomed the HIQA report and said it will assist in driving improvements.
Speaking on RTÉ's News At One, Jim Gibson said Tusla did fall down on the renewing of garda vetting, not just in the Mid-West, but in other areas.
However, he added that a plan is now in place, a "good administrative structure", that tracks every foster carer and triggers a red-flag when a renewal is required for that foster family.
Mr Gibson said Tusla does need to "up its game" in ensuring that garda checks are done and that assessments are initiated a lot quicker.
He said through Tusla's transformation programme it is dedicated to that improvement and it has committed to the improvement through its action plan submitted to HIQA.
It is well documented, he said, that there are a lack of social workers in Ireland.
Mr Gibson said Tusla and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs are considering reviewing standards put in place in 1995 in relation to foster care.
