Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 16 July 2026

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Equality

Child Protection Matters, Special Care and Special Emergency Care Arrangements: Tusla

2:00 am

Ms Kate Duggan:

Absolutely. I am delighted to say we are going to open three units, two before the end of this year and one in January 2027. We are calling them step-up or step-down units. I hope when the committee members come to special care and they see young people who have not committed a crime walking down around locked doors, their liberty taken away and high-wired fencing, they will understand it needs to be a measure of last resort. We are looking at having more step-up units where the environment is physically stronger. That has often been the concern we have had when we talk about the use of restraint in terms of ratios that might be needed or the strength of the environment in terms of ligature points, the windows, the doors and the layout of the environment. There are a number of environmental modifications that would have been needed and that is why we are building three purpose-built units. At the end of this year two will be opened and one will be opened next year. They have taken almost two years from the point of getting the capital approval, getting them built and up to the level of compliance in terms of HIQA, to, in this case, getting the much more robust physical environments. Three units, as I said, will be opened by January.

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