Shane Cassells (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome Dr. Lynch and the other witnesses. Deputy Madigan asked why this was not on people's radar and why no one was flagging this. We flagged this as far back as two years ago in February 2015 when our then spokesperson, Deputy Troy, introduced legislation into the Dáil aimed at tackling these exorbitant fees. We wanted to legislate for the manner in which the courts appointed GALs and the oversight of them. It was clear that within the current system scarce resources were being spent on an unregulated and chaotic system, while at the same time it was clear we did not have adequate resources to fund front-line staff in supporting vulnerable children.

As has been outlined this morning, if some GALs could earn as much as €300,000 in a single year, something was seriously wrong. Spending on legal fees increased from €11.9 million in 2013 to €16 million in 2014. To put that €16 million into context, when we introduced that child care Bill, which was eventually brought to the floor in July 2015, the previous budget had left Tusla €18 million short in meeting day-to-day running costs resulting in cuts to rape crisis centres and domestic support services in that year. It is clear that the exorbitant fees for legal representation were a gross waste of public money with Tusla facing many challenges. I am glad that the opening statements today acknowledged the need for that to be tackled.

When the Minister was questioned in the Dáil 18 months ago, he could not provide the information on exactly what had been paid out to individual GALs. The financial system of Tusla did not have the details of the number of individual GALs involved, despite the exorbitant fees being paid out under the scheme. Given all of this and to inform budgeting, how is demand for the service currently forecast?