The board of the Child and Family Support Agency will demand more funds from the Government if a review of social worker caseloads due in the autumn indicates a shortage of resources.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny hass promised whatever measures necessary to stamp out the activities of children being abused in creches as exposed on 'PrimeTime' last night.

Fianna Fáil is accusing the Children's Minister, Frances Fitzgerald, of putting children at risk by delaying the publication of two key pieces of childcare legislation.

Frances Fitzgerald, the children’s minister, will today launch a new advocacy service for children in care amid calls for an overhaul of the guardian ad litem service in the courts.

The number of children and teenagers who died of unnatural causes while in the care of the HSE more than doubled last year.

Children’s charity chief Fergus Finlay says he is more scared than ever about the number of youngsters at risk in Ireland.

Children identified as being in unsuitable foster placements have been removed from those families following the publication of a critical report last week, the children’s minister has confirmed.

A pledge to introduce free GP care and universal health insurance by 2016 are among several old promises reiterated yesterday in the Government’s blueprint for radical health service reform.

Barnardos said next month’s budget needs to mark the end of stringent cuts and the beginning of investment in vulnerable families.

Amending Ireland's constitution to protect children's rights is the first step in moving away from the past failures of the nation, leading charities have claimed.

The HSE pays approximately €18m a year on legal representation in cases involving children, a sum its national director of children and family services has said may be unnecessary.

New national standards for the protection and welfare of children include annual staff appraisals and safeguards for whistleblowers in what the Government called a “radical step forward”.

The new Child and Family Agency to be set up next year will incorporate a range of services, including public health nurses and truancy officers, although its budget has yet to be decided.

A new report will provide the foundation for a “revolution in child protection and family services”, Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald said today.

A report from the Task Force on the Child and Family Support Agency will be launched later this morning.

Care workers and HSE staff who “blatantly” failed vulnerable young children under their care could face criminal charges.

The Government’s new Child and Family Support Agency should not hire any new social workers until it ensures all of its social workers are being properly supervised by more senior staff, according to the chief executive of Barnardos.

A radical root-and-branch reform of the child protection system in Ireland has been recommended in a damning inquiry in to child deaths in care.

The Government had one good day last week.

More cases of child neglect are being referred to the country’s care services, said the Minister for Children, Frances Fitzgerald, yesterday as she outlined plans for a standalone referendum on children’s rights later this year.

THE report into the deaths of children known to social services will be published before Christmas, Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald said yesterday.

A STATE group tasked with overseeing child protection in Ireland has been set up — a year after former HSE chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm said the health service should not have responsibility for the sector.

IRELAND needs up to 2,000 additional social workers to bring child protection services up to the same standard as in the North, social justice campaigner Fr Peter McVerry has said.

THE HSE was last night accused of failing to shore up foster care services in parts of Dublin after a report showed that almost all relative foster carers had not been assessed.