Ms Kate Duggan:

The only thing I would add is on the strategy referred to there. Tusla has purchased nine houses which would give us 36 beds if we make them four-bed units. The biggest challenge is staffing and so our focus now is on looking at the skill mix, the ratios, and the qualifications for residential care.

The other thing I want to correct for the record is that when I spoke about the 62 young people in special emergency arrangements, there are also 100 separated children or young people on any one night in a special emergency arrangement. Therefore, when I referred to the 62, that was our mainstream services. If we think about our separated children seeking international protection, we have gone from 150 referrals to the service in 2021 to 597 in 2022. In 2021 we had 90 children in the care of Tusla while today, we have 256 children. That is 256 beds that we have had to add into the system and that certainly is impacting our ability in terms of the public private ratio. As was said, we do not want special emergency arrangements as a feature, particularly in terms of value for money, and it is about eliminating and reducing them.