Body to deal with social workers’ disciplinary hearings will not be investigating older cases

THE new body which will begin disciplinary hearings involving social workers next year will not deal with older cases, it emerged yesterday.

Coru, the organisation responsible for regulating health and social care professionals, said statutory registration of social workers will be in place by the middle of next year following the recent appointment of the Social Workers Registration Board by Minister for Health Mary Harney.

Amid growing calls for accountability in the Roscommon abuse case, the HSE has said that it will begin a separate process looking at whether social workers and others involved with the family have a case to answer.