Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 2 October 2025

Public Accounts Committee

Financial Statements 2024: Tusla - the Child and Family Agency

2:00 am

Mr. Pat Smyth:

I will give the Deputy a breakdown. We have about 180 or 190 agency staff at the moment. Three or four years ago, as Ms Duggan said, we had twice that number. We have managed to keep it down below those numbers. To explain a little further, about 60% of those are agency staff that are brought in for rosters, probably in the residential units more than anything else because we need to have staff there. Half of the rest are in front-line posts in the regions. Then there are some extra staff brought in around projects or other pieces. It is a relatively small number. It is an area where I am not sure we are going to be able to get very low in the residential side of it. There will always be an element of agency staff there. I believe it is quite tightly controlled and is small given the numbers, which is 186 out of some 5,500.

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