Dr. Maria Corbett:

It is great that Tusla will come before the committee. In terms of roles, Tusla has operational responsibility for services and the Department for Children, Disability and Equality holds the policy and legal remit. Over the next year, it will produce a national strategy on alternative care. In terms of exploring with the Department the issue of high support care, the committee could examine that because Tusla cannot bring that under its remit even if it had funding as it does not have a policy or legal framework to do so. It makes ad hoc arrangements for children at the moment. It will work directly with the HSE and establish a special arrangement for a child, but it cannot create a new set of high support units. It needs the Department of children to engage on that.

In terms of the special care report that we spoke about and the suite of recommendations, some of which are internal to Tusla while others go back to other Departments, the overarching recommendation is that we continue to fund the three existing centres and move to create a new centre of excellence, that is, a new purpose-built unit. There are many recommendations and we need the Department of children to engage on that.