At least 127 children have been identified as requiring “urgent attention” following an emergency review by the Child and Family Agency of case files recently discovered in Laois and Offaly.

The Child and Family Agency says it is hopeful no other area of the country will reveal unaddressed files as was the case in Portlaoise, following a national audit of cases awaiting allocation.

Internal wrangling over the proposed IT system for recording and tracking of child welfare cases has been a major factor in its delayed introduction, new documents have shown.

The majority of homeless children known to the Health Service Executive’s care services are in the HSE South area.

SOCIAL workers are on a collision course with the HSE over a new standardisation process for dealing with child protection cases, including sexual abuse cases.

A TOP child law expert has claimed the Government is ignoring the recommendations from the Roscommon incest case report in a new bill “designed to silence ‘troublesome’ voices” of children in legal proceedings.

THE HSE has told an Oireachtas Committee that it cannot provide figures for the number of children in care who go missing; have a drug problem; have been assaulted or have harmed themselves.