Mr. Pat Smyth:

Tusla's focus has always been on trying to ensure we have the major expenditures in the agency covered. We have heavy expenditures around legal contracts, for instance. That is a €12 million contract we procured in 2021. It landed across all legal services. We have put in place a major contract around private residential services, which is around €90 million per annum, that was completed across 2020 and 2021. We have a major procurement under way around private foster care, which is due to be completed before the end of the year. Our resources tend to be focused on those major procurements and through the past year and a half, that is what we have had to do.

We have had, and still have, plans in place to address that non-compliance in areas focused on lots of local services. We have approximately 300 locations across the country in Tusla. Cleaning, security, office supplies, etc., fall to those local areas. In many cases, people are compliant and the figure is under €25,000 in many cases. When we consolidate that for the agency, those contracts add up to more than €25,000. We have been trying to address that and have had difficulty, part of which has been that we do not have automated systems to prevent people purchasing when they cross those type of contracts. It is a very manual system we have had to operate with. That is part of our agenda in terms of-----