Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

The 2021 appropriation account for Vote 40 records gross expenditure of €1.8 billion. This was distributed across five output programmes that provide a broad range of services to meet the needs of children and of vulnerable persons in society.

Programme A provides for children and family support. This is the largest area of spending under the Vote, at approximately €888 million, or 49% of the total. The grant to Tusla, amounting to €857 million in 2021, represents the bulk of the spending on the programme.

Programme B comprises funding for a wide range of schemes and programmes to benefit children and young people, at a combined cost of €680 million in 2021. This area of spending has increased rapidly in recent years, and it was significantly affected by Covid-19 restrictions over the past two years. Most of the schemes funded under the programme are administered by Pobal, acting as an agent on behalf of the Department.

Expenditure of just over €200 million in 2021 was charged to programme E, which funds the provision of support for international protection seekers.

Most of the expenditure was in respect of accommodation for persons seeking international protection, accounting for €191 million in 2021. Members will be aware of the very significant additional pressures in that regard that have fallen on the Department in 2022, as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The remaining two Vote programmes are on a smaller scale. One supports a range of equality initiatives, the other caters for policy development and legislation within the Department’s remit. Due mainly to savings that occurred across the Vote, the surplus at the end of 2021 was €98.5 million. The Department was allowed to carry €3.2 million over to 2022, to fund capital works, but surrendered €95 million at the year end.

A clear audit opinion was issued in relation to the appropriation account. However, I drew attention to the disclosure by the Accounting Officer in the statement on internal financial control regarding non-compliance with procurement rules. This was mainly in relation to contracts put in place for the provision of accommodation to international protection seekers.

Members may also wish to note that, while the Department has been developing its ICT infrastructure, it still relied in early 2021 on the provision of financial management system services by the Department of Health. This support service was interrupted as a result of the ransomware attack on health sector bodies that occurred in May 2021. Work-around processes were adopted for a period, and completion of a planned migration of the Department’s financial management service away from the Department of Health’s systems was accelerated. Normal financial management functions were resumed by the end of June 2021.

I turn now to the chapter which is on the agenda for today. A guardian ad litemis an independent person appointed by a court to ensure the best interests and views of a child or children are heard in public family law proceedings. While the service is provided at the direction of the courts, the costs of the service are discharged by Tusla, even though the organisation is a party to the family law proceedings. The cost of the guardian ad litemservice averages at €14 million to €15 million a year. Costs vary widely at the individual case level. I previously examined the operation of the guardian ad litemservice, and published a report on my findings in September 2016. That report contained three recommendations which, at the time, were agreed to by the Department and by Tusla. Our examination this year found that the recommendations had not been implemented, for a variety of reasons. However, a revised legislativebasisfor the provision of the guardian ad litemservice was finalised in July of this year, with the enactment of the Child Care (Amendment) Act 2022. This potentially removes the main obstacles that prevented progress being made in developing effective management oversight and control mechanisms for the service.