Urgent need for overhaul of services

TODAY’S report on the staggering cost of keeping a single child in residential care under “special arrangements” is particularly disturbing because many State residential care centres, built at enormous expense, are half-empty.

No less worrying is the revelation that the use of “special arrangements” contravenes the recommendations of the Irish Social Services Inspectorate (ISSI), the national body responsible for inspecting State residential childcare centres.

Incredibly, the ISSI cannot inspect private facilities contracted to health boards to provide special care for children. But despite repeated calls to give the inspectorate teeth by putting it on a statutory footing, it remains largely an administrative body.