ABOUT 400 children with disabilities are in residential care settings that are subject to no form of inspection regime, an Oireachtas committee has been told.
Deirdre Carroll, chief executive of Inclusion Ireland, told the Oireachtas health committee yesterday that this was extremely worrying and was as a result of a serious defect in current legislation.
However, she expressed the hope that these facilities would be inspected by the Health Information and Quality Authority in due course.
She said draft national standards for residential centres for people with disabilities were now being finalised by the authority which, if implemented, would protect residents from neglect and abuse. However, she said she feared funding for the authority to do this could become an issue.
"Inclusion Ireland has been told by the Department of Health that the draft disability standards, which have been warmly received by all stakeholders, are unlikely to be placed on a statutory footing for some time due to budgetary constraints. This is very worrying."
Ms Carroll pointed out that children with disabilities were more vulnerable to abuse, but despite this their homes were not being inspected.
"Inclusion Ireland is aware of the many excellent services providing good quality care to people with disabilities but through our work we are also aware of cases of neglect, poor standards, bad practice and abuse," she added.
Dr Tracey Cooper, chief executive of the authority, told the meeting the draft standards for residential services for people with disabilities were now being finalised and would go to the board of the authority early in the new year.
Assuming they were approved by the board, they would be immediately sent to Minister for Health Mary Harney for her consideration.
She added that discussions were ongoing with the Department of Health in relation to the organisation's budget.
The committee has agreed to write to Ms Harney expressing serious concern about lack of inspection of certain facilities and calling for the draft standards to be put in place as soon as possible.