Mr. Bernard Gloster:

It is not a signalling of a policy shift to wind down private provision. In that interview, as in many others, I pointed to the fact that social care services in Ireland - in private nursing homes for the elderly, in the disability sector and in other areas - all have private provision. There are some very good providers so I do not want to make this about disparaging any type of provision. The point I was making in that article is very simply this: more than 60% of children in residential care are now dependent on private provision and that is far too significant a dependency for a sector that is populated by companies and organisations that can exit the market any time they choose to do so, or where other circumstances arise. It is the level of dependency rather than the existence of the dependency.

The policy direction in Tusla is to come up with a plan, by the end of this year, to redress that balance and create more public provision. That will take several years to achieve. There is no doubt that we have reached the lowest number we will have in terms of children in residential care. That number will probably increase slightly.