Probe call amid fears for adults in care

HSE bosses have been summoned to a meeting with Disabilities Minister Finian McGrath in the coming days over revelations that hundreds of vulnerable adults were abandoned in care settings for years without any State follow-up.

But while the minister said he was “appalled” by the revelations, he refused yesterday to commit to a formal investigation into the affair and his department said it would be “premature” to discuss such a move.

The scandal, revealed by the RTÉ Investigations Unit, centres on an unpublished report compiled by a senior social worker which raised serious concerns about the care and protection of 1,080 adults with intellectual disabilities in residential care and foster home settings.