Health service staff who worked with children at the centre of the Roscommon incest case should have taken them into care "an awful lot sooner", Health Minister Mary Harney admitted today.

An independent inquiry is to be carried out into the handling of the 'House of Horrors' child abuse case, health chiefs confirmed tonight.

Minister for Children Barry Andrews says he still has not received a report from the HSE into the circumstances surrounding the Roscommon incest case.

Children's charity Barnardos is renewing its call for a Children's Rights referendum.

The Health Minister says the facts about the Roscommon abuse case must be established before action is taken.

A depraved mother who tortured her six children with years of incest and abuse in a “House of Horrors” in the west of Ireland was jailed for seven years today.

A mother-of-six who pleaded guilty to two counts of incest and two charges of sexual abuse against a son and to neglecting and ill-treating each of her children is due to be sentenced at Roscommon Circuit Court today.