An immediate investigation into allegations of mistreatment of children at Newtown House in Co Wicklow has been demanded by Fine Gael.
The report on the institution, published yesterday, "raises the most serious questions in relation to the state of residential childcare in this country and, in particular, facilities and services for at-risk young people", said the party's spokeswoman on equality and family affairs, Ms Frances Fitzgerald TD.
The Minister of State with responsibility for children, Ms Hanafin, said she had asked the chief executive officer of the East Coast Area Health Board "to take urgent action to address the findings of the report". Resources had been made available for this purpose.
She expressed concern that "the report indicates that good child practice was not followed in a number of instances".
She has asked each health board to give priority to psychological and psychiatric services to children in residential care.
The East Coast Area Health Board said it had been addressing problems such as those at Newtown House prior to the investigation by the Irish Social Services Inspectorate.
It is appointing a residential services manager, is increasing the number of staff in its residential services with recognised child care qualifications and is training others to get the relevant qualifications.
It is investigating reports of physical restraint of children "and particular past incidents" at Newtown House and, "where necessary and just, the appropriate measures will be taken".
The IMPACT trade union called for "high-support child care teams" to be set up to work in high-support units. "IMPACT has repeatedly warned about problems in this centre and in the childcare services more broadly", said Mr Sean McHugh, a union official.
"The tragedy is that the problems were entirely predictable and the question now is whether Government is prepared to do more than simply apportion blame."