A new study has indicated that some people are given anti-psychotic medicine in nursing homes because of poor resources and a lack of training by those providing care.

A care worker has received a police caution after shocking hidden camera footage showed her repeatedly slapping an elderly woman with dementia in her own home.

Thousands of elderly and vulnerable people in nursing homes and other residential facilities are being detained without legal authority and will have to have their cases reviewed by the courts or specialist tribunals.

A community group has claimed it’s inappropriate to house troubled teenagers in an area which has no amenities and could be dangerous for them.

Elderly people living at home are not receiving the level of support nurses say they need and this amounts to “elder abuse” by the State.

Health watchdog Hiqa has warned of the potential of “new hidden populations” who could be vulnerable to abuse, including the homeless, migrants and those in direct provision.

Hiqa is demanding legislation to protect those most at risk in the country’s care services from abuse, harm, and exploitation, after it found inappropriate staff behaviour, and unsafe practices across institutions.

HIQA inspectors have found evidence of poor management and risk to patients at a number of care homes for those with intellectual disabilities.

Fred McBride, the new CEO of Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, has said to stop families in the Irish care system taking risks would be to take away their dignity.

The head of the State’s child protection agency, Tusla, has confirmed that children are left in foster homes where abuse allegations have surfaced, insisting that removing them would be worse.

Twenty care centres across the country face closure, affecting hundreds of people with intellectual disabilities.

A Government backbencher has warned there is a “cloak of secrecy” around the wide-scale abuse of people with severe intellectual disabilities in hundreds of HSE-run care homes across the country.

The head of a body representing people with intellectual disabilities and their families has said the HSE must ensure quality of life is provided for residents in care homes.

The Minister for Primary and Social Care has said she expects more concerns to be raised about care homes and disability services following the

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The health watchdog has been deliberately misled about the conditions in care homes, according to whistleblower complaints reported today.

Nine people have been suspended on full pay at the HSE-run Áras Attracta care home in Co Mayo after a Prime Time report showed shocking treatment of residents.

RTE has confirmed that it reported the abuse it recorded at the HSE-run Áras Attracta care home in Co Mayo to the Gardaí.

The sister of a woman who suffered sustained verbal and physical threats at Áras Attracta says the scandal has nothing to do with cutbacks and everything to do with "an accepted culture" of abuse.

There are few events in anyone’s life as demanding emotionally, as unnerving and undermining, as the decision faced by the parents and siblings of a child with intellectual disabilities when they realise they can no longer care for their child in their home. Commitment and unquestioning love are defeated by the hard realities of day-to-day life.

Last night’s shocking ‘Prime Time’ report on care homes ha s to prompt action on some long-needed reforms, writes Paddy Connolly