The Health Service Executive (HSE) was warned almost two years ago by the children's charity Barnardo's that young asylum seekers at a residential centre were being placed at risk due to low staffing levels and poor child-protection measures.
It emerged yesterday that the Dublin-based centre, funded by the HSE, has been operating on an unregistered basis for at last year after failing to meet basic standards of care for the 24 residents.
During this time, childcare staff have expressed concern over children going missing, rape allegations and violence within the unit.
The Irish Times yesterday obtained correspondence which shows that Barnardo's had been providing a range of supports to separated children between March and December 2004 at the centre.
However, the children's charity chose not to renew or extend its contract due to concerns over the level of care available for minors at the centre.
A risk assessment carried out by the charity in April of 2004 found that children were at a high level of risk due to a lack of supervision or monitoring of their movement.
The assessment said: "[ We have] identified some serious child-protection concerns such as staff not knowing the whereabouts of the young people, the young people having more purchasing power than their weekly allowance would allow for, young people watching television and videos unsupervised in their rooms, low staffing levels and untrained staff.
"The presence of Barnardo's staff during 2004 added to the level of basic care and appropriate attention which, the young people received. Nonetheless, a high level of serious risk remained."
It also expressed concern that many people working at the centre had no history of working with children.
The review added: "A culture had developed which emphasised containment of the young people through a system of rules, incident reports and sanctions.
"In its first year, almost 200 incident reports were forwarded to project and social workers."
In the letter to the HSE, dated November 2004, Barnardo's said it was vital to provide enough funding to ensure children were properly cared for.
In a statement yesterday, the HSE said it understood the centre was operating legally and was "fully aware" of the situation in the residential home.
It was working actively with its registration and inspections service and the home's proprietor in order to ensure that the provision of care is brought up to the satisfactory level.
"A series of measures, including; recruiting additional childcare professionals are currently being initiated and the HSE is confident that the measures it is taking will mean that in the future, the home will satisfy registration criteria," the HSE said in a statement.
