Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and his officials for appearing before the committee. No one would dare to argue with an increase in funding to Tusla as it is very much-needed. Members across the political divide would acknowledge that the agency has struggled to keep up with everything we would like to see it address. Last year alone, Mr. Gordon Jeyes, the CEO of Tusla, called for €18 million extra just to keep up with the shortfall in social workers. We have seen a 17% cut to domestic violence services since 2012 while counselling services were cut by 47%. There has been a 5% cut year on year to the school completion programme and the family resource centres.

Many of the good schemes dealing with prevention and early intervention have not been able to fulfil their obligations and are becoming reactionary and are only getting involved when a problem manifests itself and it becomes abundantly clear State intervention is needed. That is not what any of us want to see the agency dealing with. We want to see the agency intervening at an early stage to prevent many problems from manifesting themselves. While I welcome the extra €15 million, I have grave reservations that it is not enough.

The Minister referred to the recovering economy, which is true and needs to be acknowledged. However, when one heard of huge increases in revenue returns announced this week, one wonders whether the Minister is selling the agency short by only looking for a €15 million increase. Mr. Gordon Jeyes is on record as saying that €18 million is needed just to keep pace with the shortfall in social workers alone. We are not even keeping pace with what Mr. Jeyes said he requires.

A bugbear of mine, which I have repeatedly highlighted, is the amount of money being spent, from limited resources, on legal fees. Previously, the Minister criticised my party and the fact the GAL system was introduced. It is legacy issue. However, this Government has been in office for five years. At a time of such limited resources, we are spending large amounts of money on an unregulated service. I am aware the Minister published a draft document in the past four to five weeks on regulating the service. Will the Minister indicate how much his Department has spent on legal fees, in terms of the administration of the GAL system, over the past four years? The huge amount of money being spent on legal fees is questionable at a time when people are waiting months to have a social worker assigned to them and when thousands of cases are not being treated with the urgency they warrant. Will the Minister outline exactly how much has been spent on legal fees in the past four years?

I turn to the other cost pressures. The Minister spoke about private residential care and private foster care payments and the demographic factors driving these increases. The Minister said more children are in care for longer periods of time. Last year, Dr. Niall Muldoon, the Ombudsman for Children, identified the huge delay in assessing children who are vulnerable. Does the Minister believe this increase in funding is sufficient given the backlog of cases that have yet to be assessed and the potential for a further increase in the number of children who may need to go into foster care or residential care?