The Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) expects to start conducting independent inspections of residential centres for people with disabilities next year.
Hiqa today published a consultation document on draft national standards for residential centres for adults and children with disabilities.
The standards set out a "vision as to what people can expect from good quality residential care services", Hiqa deputy director of social services inspectorate, Niall Byrne said.
He told reporters the sector is under-regulated and, as a result, standards and quality vary widely across the estimated 1,700 centres where people with disabilities received residential care.
He said most other jurisdictions had better systems of regulation. "Other European countries have comprehensive schemes of regulation."
If the Minister for Health approves the proposed standards and regulations are drawn up then "we would have a very effective scheme in place".
The standards outlined in the document would "promote and facilitate a good quality of life" through a "person-centred" approach, he said.
Mr Byrne said one of the main shortcomings of residential centres for people with disabilities was a failure to adequately focus on the individual.
"The degree to which services are properly centred around the individual person "and the degree to which people are involved and consulted in relation to their own service" needs improvement, he said.
Hiqa chief executive Tracey Cooper said there are approximately two to three times as many residential centres for people with disabilities than nursing homes in the State. Most of these are in the voluntary sector. "It's largely a State-funded service that people receive, but through various kinds of intermediary agencies that actually do the service provision," Mr Byrne said.
He said anecdotal evidence suggests some centres have invested significantly in quality while other centres could be "significantly behind" the quality curve.
The proposed standards would apply to services provided by all types of providers including public bodies, private organisations and voluntary organisations. They will implement "very much the same framework" that applies to nursing homes and long-stay HSE care.
Following public consultation Hiqa "fully expects to revise the draft" after which the standards will be submitted to the Minister for Health and the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. "In 2013 the authority expects to be commenced by ministerial order for the registration and inspection of residential services," Mr Byrne said.
"We would be making strenuous efforts in our first year of inspecting to get around to pretty much every service so at least at the end of that year we would be able to say something about… the level of quality."
To download the draft standards, visit hiqa.ie
