A private company is operating at least six children's residential centres across the State that have not been registered with the local health authorities. This is a breach of legislation.
Despite this, a number of health boards have already placed children in the units.
The units, run by a company called Freshstart Eire, care for troubled children and are based in Cork, Carlow and Laois.
The Irish Times has learnt that the South Eastern Health Board (SEHB), the Southern Health Board (SHB) and the Mid Western Health Board (MWHB) have all placed children with Freshstart in its Cork units. The company has five units in Cork, each of which looks after one child, at a cost to the health boards of up to €9,000 a week.
When asked why they were placing children in unregistered centres and whether they had concerns about doing so, the MWHB said its policy was "not to comment on individual cases".
The SEHB said its quality assurance officer had visited the service "to ensure that the care being provided is satisfactory". It added that the network of children's residential centres in the State was not yet fully adequate to meet the needs of all children requiring residential care.
The SHB said it was "continuing to monitor existing placements in line with current best practice".
It is only when centres are registered that the authorities can be sure appropriate checks have been carried out on staff and that proper care plans are in place for the children in residence.
Under Section 60 of the Child Care Act 1991, a person is prohibited from operating a children's residential centre unless the centre is registered. Anyone who contravenes the section shall, it says, be guilty of an offence.
A Department of Health spokeswoman said all centres should be be registered prior to admitting children. The Department said it had informed health boards to take "urgent steps" to ensure the centres in question were inspected and registered as soon as possible.
It also urged the boards to review any arrangements whereby children are currently placed in unregistered centres and, in future, to ensure in all cases that centres are inspected and registered before children are placed.
The head of care at Freshstart, Mr Gary Kiernan, said that, when the company arrived here from the UK two years ago, it wrote to the SHB seeking to begin the process of registration. However, there appeared to be no mechanism in place to deal with such applications from a private company and the process of registration had, therefore, been long and drawn out.
In the interim, he said the company had supplied the SHB with documentation showing the centres were insured, met fire safety standards and that staff had been vetted.
"We attempted to register all the units before children were admitted," Mr Kiernan said.
The units in Carlow and Laois had only been set up in recent months, he said. He added, however, that there was a delay in beginning the registration process for the Laois unit because the application had originally been submitted in error to the SEHB rather than the Midland Health Board (MHB).
The units, he added, had been very successful, with all children in the Cork units now in full-time education.
The SHB admitted there was a delay in appointing staff to its registration, inspection and monitoring unit.
It said it was now in the process of inspecting the Freshstart units in its area.
The MHB said it had agreed a date for inspection of the Laois unit and the SEHB has now inspected the Carlow facility.