Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 21 October 2021

Public Accounts Committee

2020 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Tusla, the Child and Family Agency - Financial Statements 2020

9:30 am

Mr. Bernard Gloster:

Yes, of course. We gave the community and voluntary organisations a 5% once-off increase this year to support them. The Minister, to be fair, was very supportive in obtaining that. Similarly, in the domestic violence sector, which is part of our funded sector, we did some additional interventions. What I mean about sustainability fundamentally is this. I do not think it will be any surprise to the Deputy. A lot of agencies would have experienced retraction, cutbacks and reductions in different lines of funding during the economic crisis. Some of those would have had that restored or had levels of recovery and others would not have. Particularly for the agencies that are actually providing services to children and families with staff on the ground, their ability to pay staff at the rates that they can attract them is more compromised because of their financial position since the economic downturn.