Ms Kate Duggan:

In terms of special care, it is obviously the only service in the country whereby, on a statutory basis, we are obliged to provide beds for children who are deprived of their liberty in order to keep them safe.

We are currently working at about 50% occupancy. We are working at 50% staffing levels. Those staffing levels are in terms of difficulty recruiting but also in terms of the level of assault on staff, with incidents where behaviours escalated with these young people who really cannot comprehend that their liberty is being taken away when they have not committed a crime. It is being taken away because of the safety concerns around them.

In regard to the young people that we have been unable to place, the reason they have been referred to special care is because they have not been able to secure the supports they need within community services, in terms of addiction, underlying grooming, exploitation and mental health services. Because there is a legislative obligation on us to provide a bed it is seen as a way of giving the child a place of safety at a particular time. We have submitted the business case to the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform in regard to increasing the allowances to see whether we can attract and recruit more staff into that service. We are hoping the interagency work will prioritise the intervention for children who are waiting for that service. We have also just got some external people who are knowledgeable in this area across a number of fields, to look at what we are doing and to make sure there is no stone that we have left unturned in regard to building capacity.