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. Pat Smyth:

Yes. To clarify, as the CEO said, private foster companies have been in existence since before the agency was set up. In many cases, they were there because we could not source foster carers in particular areas. The challenge is that once a foster child enters care, the agency is very reluctant to move that child, certainly on the basis of cost. A child might be moved on the basis of care, but not on the basis of cost.