THE Minister for Health has not ruled out an inquiry into the allegations of abuse at Goldenbridge Orphanage.

Mr Noonan said that, given the time lapse and the death and fading faculties of many of the staff working there at the time, an inquiry would have great difficulty in establishing the truth or otherwise of some of the specific allegations made.

"But I intend monitoring the situation to see if an inquiry would be justified on the basis of dew information emerging."

Mr Noonan said the sister who was in charge of Goldenbridge during the period about which the allegations were made was subsequently transferred to another orphanage run by the Mercy Order.

He welcomed the Eastern Health Board's decision to organise a review of care practices in the home and its proposal to interview five residents from each year over a 10 year period during which the sister in question was in charge. He said he `intended' establishing, on a statutory basis, an inspectorate of social services in the Department of Health, which would be responsible for quality assurance.

Urging the Minister to consider holding a public inquiry, Ms Frances Fitzgerald (FG, Dublin South East) said them must be no cover up.

The PD spokeswoman one health, Ms Liz O'Donnell, said she hoped that every measure would be taken by the State to further inquire into the affair.

"Apologies, while worthy, are, no substitute for a formal, immediate response by the church authorities and by the Government' to ensure that such depravity will never again be visited on vulnerable children."

It was a double tragedy that children who had been removed from dysfunctional families, or who had been orphaned, were, placed in theoretically "safe" care, only to find that the supposed refuge was not safe at all.