The Health Service Executive (HSE) has warned the Department of Health that some of the 250 separated children seeking asylum who have disappeared from their care over the past four years are being sexually or financially exploited.
The Department has also been accused of failing to respond to repeated requests for additional resources by the HSE to provide acceptable standards of care since 2001, according to a report in today's edition of The Irish Times.
Lack of funding also means social workers are not able to follow up on all cases of separated children who are reunified with their families, or people claiming to be their families, according to the HSE.
Reviews of services for separated children by the executive in the east coast area and the south both highlighted a range of concerns over inappropriate standards of care for the hundreds of children in care.
The reviews and correspondence, released to The Irish Timesunder the Freedom of Information Act, show that health authorities believe all separated children have been either trafficked or smuggled into the country.