THE long delays in completing investigations into child abuse allegations at children's residential centres are to be raised at the annual conference of the Irish Association of Care Workers this weekend.
Calls for licensing of child care workers and for an after care service for children leaving residential care will also be debated.
The careers of some child care workers could be in ruins because health boards have told homes that investigations into abuse allegations have produced an inconclusive result, according to Mr Pat Dolan, the IACW's national spokesman.
Social workers investigating such allegations should arrive at a definite conclusion of guilt or innocence, he said. The current delays in concluding investigations or, in some cases, of producing an inconclusive" verdict are unfair both to children and to care workers, he said.
Delays in carrying out investigations also meant care workers could be suspended while no real action was being taken by the health board to establish the truth, he said.
Reacting to this week's RTE documentary, Dear Daughter, on past abuse of children at a Sisters of Mercy orphanage in Goldenbridge, Dublin, Mr Dolan said there was an urgent need for a licensing system for those working with children in care. "Promises by successive governments to introduce such a system for care workers have not been kept."
The needs of people who have left care should also receive more attention, he said. "Adolescents as young as 16 years are leaving residential care and because of a lack of adequate staff and resources are left unsupported, at risk and at large within the community."
For some, he said, the consequences have included homelessness, loneliness, marginalisation and suicide.