PAC to send foster home abuse claims to Garda

The Public Accounts Committee is to forward allegations of abuse at a Waterford foster care home to gardaí and to the Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar, amid concern that health chiefs have taken no action.

There have already been cross-party calls for an inquiry into the HSE’s handling of claims that up to 40 intellectually disabled children and young adults were sexually abused by a foster care family over two decades.

PAC chairman John McGuinness yesterday said information the committee had received and evidence in hearings would now be forwarded to gardaí. The HSE had been too relaxed looking into the claims, he argued.