Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and his officials for being here and thank the Minister for his presentation. I have a small criticism. I would like to get the notes and documentation a little bit earlier so that I would have more time to prepare. Sometimes the supporting documentation comes in late and it could be late in the evening before we get a chance to look over it.

The €15 million is a minimal amount in the overall spend but it does not come as a surprise because it has been well highlighted that Tusla is underfunded. I acknowledge the Minister has allocated extra funds next year but when one takes into consideration all the different agencies under the umbrella of Tusla, when the money is divvied out, it means very tight budgets for many of these agencies and it is hard to stay within these budgets. A Supplementary Estimate has been brought forward this year but we cannot bring one forward next year. If there is an overspend next year, it will be a cause for concern.

The Minister said savings targets for 2015 would not be achieved owing to the need to protect, in so far as possible, front line service delivery. That is a bit strange because the State would have had to provide resources to protect the children anyway, so it is just stating the obvious. No provision was made for the industrial relations settlement on twilight hours. Should the Minister not have made a provision, such as a contingency fund, to cover this? Is this something that came out of the blue for which his Department was not prepared?

Tusla's main focus should always be to provide the best care possible in an efficient manner, something on which everybody agrees. Will the Minister indicate, in the context of spending breakdown, how much funding is allocated to each measure he has put forward? My other queries were covered by Deputy Troy, so I will leave it at that for now.