The provisional terms of reference for an imminent State inquiry into the ‘Grace’ foster home abuse scandal are set to be given to Disabilities Minister Finian McGrath this week.

Decades of sexual abuse of a woman with severe intellectual disabilities who lived in foster care is alleged to have been covered up. An independent review is set to conclude in the coming days, paving the way for a State investigation.

The new Government has been urged to expand the planned Grace foster home sexual abuse inquiry into a full-blown review of Ireland’s foster care services due to fears the investigation will be “too narrow” to uncover “systemic” problems crippling the system.

Six men have been sentenced over a “violent protest” in Mountjoy Prison in which five prison officers were injured.