The highest numbers are in the Dublin north and midwest regions.

Nearly 5,000 children, deemed child protection and welfare cases, have not been allocated a social worker.

The body which reviews the deaths of children known to care services has urged the government to address the lack of adequate mental health services after outlining how it has been a factor in some of the cases it has reviewed.

More than 1,100 injuries or accidents involving children in residential care took place last year, according to new figures.

A Tusla-funded charity with 23 staff had no monthly payroll reports despite spending almost 81% of its income on payroll over three years.

A new advocacy report from Epic (Empowering People In Care) shows that 12% of its clients, who have been or are in the care system, were homeless.

Five reports into the deaths of children known to the care services have found shortcomings in how the cases were dealt with.

The deaths of nine young people, who had been in the Irish care system, were not as a result of the services they had received.

Parents of people in care have pleaded for the HSE to come clean on all internal reviews and reports carried out into residential, respite, and foster care settings in the wake of the latest concerns raised in leaked documents.

Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, says it supports a move to having private children’s residential care centres being independently inspected as suggested in a report highlighting major shortfalls in the process.

Inspections watchdog Hiqa has expressed serious concerns about children living in the direct provision system, with an inspection report showing they are at risk of physical and mental abuse.

Children’s rights groups have reacted with concern to the news that a completed review of previously unattended-to child welfare files has found that at least 127 children in Laois/Offaly require immediate intervention.

More than 230 children in Cork assessed as being at high risk of harm, did not have an allocated social worker.

An organisation working with young people in care has called for more training for staff at Oberstown Campus in Dublin.

An expert group set up by the Ombudsman for Children’s Office to investigate areas of concern affecting children is due to deliver its report by the end of next month.

Some young people leaving care are at such a high risk of homelessness that they are returning to the family settings which led to them being placed in care in the first place.

Long-awaited legislation meant to ensure young people leaving State care are supported into adulthood makes no provision for funding necessary services.

Landlords have defended themselves from claims they are to blame for the housing crisis and said the Government should take responsibility.

Government officials risk causing 20 more years of needless deaths in Ireland’s State care services unless they fully implement detailed plans to revamp the sector’s aftercare system.

A high-support unit for children in care is to close down next month after the inspection watchdog, the Health and Information Quality Authority (Hiqa), said it was a serious fire risk and that staff were unable to control bullying behaviour.

Inspections of foster care services in Co Mayo have found that watchdogs had to issue an immediate action plan due to a number of serious failings in the area.

An inspection report into a high-support unit for troubled children has found problems over the reporting of child protection concerns and a high level of absconding.

The HSE took 10 months to repair a boy’s walking frame while some children in care could not be reunited with their families because local authorities failed to provide suitable housing.

The Government is making a mockery of post-Ryan Report child protection vows by failing to address serious funding and staffing problems in the foster care services.

The HSE did not always formally notify gardaí of cases where children may have been physically or sexually abused, a report published by the health watchdog has claimed.

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 Irish Refugee Council has said it is awaiting legal advice as to whether children in the asylum system are included under the wording of the upcoming referendum on children’s rights.

One-in-five young people surveyed for a study into leaving the care system had experienced a period of homelessness in the 21 months after turning 18.

The HSE’s staff moratorium and reductions in the staff training budget are being blamed by social care workers for some of the appalling standards of care revealed in the latest inspections of private children’s homes.

An advocacy group for children in care has hit out at social workers for “failing” children following the Irish Examiner’s publication of HSE inspection reports of private children’s homes.

Four out of 10 young people suffer mental health problems after leaving state care, new research has revealed.