Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I want to pick up on a few issues. In these revised Estimates, does the Minister believe there is enough in terms of safety to deal with the challenge that private services pose to Tusla? Over recent years there has been a significant growth in the private services used by Tusla in residential and foster care. These are more expensive services than we get from Tusla units and foster carers. They are more vulnerable to price increases and shocks. Also, private residential units are not covered by HIQA so we do not have the same level of oversight. There is general inflation and I am concerned that it will be used as an opportunity to increase prices. That means one will be left with young people in a private care that, realistically, Tusla can no longer afford. However, it would be devastating to that young person's care plan and placement to move him or her out.

I wish to discuss the private foster care issue. Private foster care placements cost between three and three and a half times as much as a Tusla placement. That drains the budget for Tusla and makes its recruitment and service development harder to achieve within budget. Ultimately, that creates a situation where there is going to be greater demand for the private placements to fill even bigger gaps in Tusla and so on. In addition, this becomes self-fulfilling and self-replicating. Can the Minister tell us what he is doing to limit the amount that Tusla spends on private services that are a structural weakness within Tusla's current arrangements?

There is a commitment in the programme of Government to provide inhouse therapeutic services within Tusla. Is there sufficient room in these Estimates to develop the services in the coming months?

The failings of the child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, have become very public. They are well known and have been well discussed but they are certainly becoming very public. I think that inhouse therapeutic services are an essential element to provide very deeply traumatised and hurt young people in care with the appropriate services that they need.