Ms Clare Murphy:

What we would wish for in Tusla is to have a culturally bespoke and appropriate placement for every child requiring a placement. We are, however, dealing with a situation where in 2022 we took in 176 children, for each of whom we had to find a placement. To date this year, we had to find placements and appropriate beds for 256 children. In the beginning, the priority for Tusla is, literally, to find a bed. After that, we try to meet all of the child's needs. This is happening on top of a system where we have a crisis in recruitment and retention of social workers, and we have a crisis in placements, including 96 Irish children waiting on an appropriate placement. So, while we would wish, we are playing catch-up. While we want to provide a far better service than we are providing, we have a capacity and resources issue and I need to put that on the record.