Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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I welcome the Minister. On the figure of €6,000 per week, I would welcome a further breakdown. The Minister stated it is the average cost of each residential place and that it is across voluntary, statutory and private providers. It would be very useful if the Minister could provide to us a breakdown. How is the metric of €6,000 arrived at? What percentage of it is attributable to insurance? What proportion of the cost is attributable to the cost of renting private property? What is the real-time metric for staffing costs? I have some sympathy in that there are quite a number of children with very complex needs but the figure of €6,000, or €312,000 per annum, seems extremely high. It would be useful to have a breakdown or a further perspective from the Minister on the justification for those costs.