Mr. Bernard Gloster:

Mr. Smyth will address the legal costs issue. I do not disagree with the Deputy, nor would I dispute that in-house provision is always a good thing. There are issues with legal representation in the courts, in-house counsel and so on. Having an in-house legal service separate from the guardian ad litemsystem, which we have no control over, has allowed us to reduce our legal services spend on outsourced services against an increased volume of activity. It has certainly proved beneficial to have those 9.25 staff and I would like to build on that. The contract tender is due again in 2021.

There are different caseloads for child protection and children in care. I will come back to the Deputy on the matter because I would like to speak to the relevant professional staff first to ensure I do not mislead her. I am not aware of a situation where agency workers engaged by Tusla would have a more favourable a workload than Tusla colleagues sitting next to them. I will check the position and if it is the case, I will revert to the Deputy. I would be very surprised if it was, however.