Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The other issue that needs to be taken into account is the cost issue. For instance, when I was chair of the board, I remember having to spend a lot of money that I did not have and being rapped on the knuckles for spending it. It was costing us approximately £600,000 at the time to provide services for about 50 young people. If four of them were in custody, that £600,000 would be spent to keep them in custody over a 12-month period. Sometimes we do not measure that, whereas we were looking after the 50 young people. I am not sure whether we have grasped that issue yet, especially for young people who have dropped out of the system. We might be better off spending much more money at an earlier stage to make sure they can be accommodated-----