Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I see a very real value in child law reporting and I want to see that continue. One particular organisation has the contract at the moment. That was through a tendering process. We cannot just extend it for that organisation. There has to be a re-tendering process. I met the organisation in March and explained that was the situation. Between then and now, there were some delays in getting that tendering process initiated. That is regrettable, but I have made it clear to my officials that I want that tendering process up and available as quickly as possible in order that a tendering can come in and this can be resumed because it is critical. I have been at the launch of, I think, every single one, maybe barring one, of the childcare law reporting annual reports each year because I place real value on it. It is often very critical of the system, including Tusla and the Department. That is appropriate. There has to be that watchdog there.

We expected a very significant initial set of applications for the redress scheme. We expected more than 12,000 in year one because we had seen a very significant number of applications to birth information and tracing. We were modelling it on that basis. To date this year, we have seen just over 5,000 applications. We are now modelling it on a slow and steady approach to applications rather than a big initial spike. It is important to say that no one is not getting a payment because of the savings taking place today. Everyone who makes an application, submits the information and goes through the process will be able to draw down funding in 2024 and in 2025. Of the just over 5,000 applications this year, just over 2,000 now have had their decisions confirmed, and just over €28 million has been awarded so far. A renewed information campaign will be undertaken in the coming weeks in Ireland, the UK, Australia and the US. With information and tracing, we did a kind of big burst at the start with this scheme because it is over five years. We have set aside a budget to do a kind of reminder information scheme as we go through, so another one will roll out in the next month.