Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I thank the Deputy. The ability for the decision support service to be up and running in June is partly reliant on the committee and its good work in terms of getting pre-legislative scrutiny done quickly. I appreciate its support in that regard. I am absolutely committed to getting it up and running for June. The Deputy cited the 2021 figure for 2022. We have significantly increased that. We actually have €7.3 million in the DSS, an increase of €1.5 million. That is a recognition that once June comes, the service will be extremely busy. It will be providing a range of skills and advice to people who require assistance with the important life decisions they have to make. It is central to our commitments under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to have the DSS established. It is also very important in terms of getting rid of the whole idea of wardship, which is the incredibly outdated system that operates now and is being challenged in the courts at the moment. Significant additional budget has been provided, staff are in place and it is working as kind of a subset of the Mental Health Commission but in terms of having the legislative power to start to be in a position to provide people with this advice, I am really hoping to get that done by June. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and I are committed to getting it through the Houses as quickly as possible once pre-legislative scrutiny is completed.

As regards the additional staff for domestic, sexual and gender-base violence, DSGBV, as the Deputy is aware, this area is in significant flux because it will move out of my Department and Tusla into the Department of Justice. That follows on from the audit that was done and it is a request made by a significant number of NGOs working in the sector. We have listened to them and are making that change on foot of those requests. As the Deputy is aware, an extra €3 million has been provided by my Department for Tusla for DSGBV this year.

That will bring it from €28 million in budget 2021 to €31 million in budget 2022. That was on foot of an increase of €2.7 million last year. There has been sustained investment in current spending in domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence services since I became Minister.

On the question of staff, Tusla has made the decision to hire a number of specialists in domestic, sexual and gender-based violence for its child protection units in each region in the country. That is because Tusla recognises that where there is a case of domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence, I suppose, the immediate risk of abuse is to the mother. There must be recognition that such action could have major long-term consequences for the children in that relationship as well. That additional investment will not move out of Tusla when the change happens. Even when responsibility for the provision of the refuges and the like move to the new entity under the Department of Justice, Tusla will still have a strong domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence specialism within it, recognising that Tusla will continue to engage, unfortunately, with hundreds or perhaps thousands of families with experience of domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence. It will continue to need expertise in that area, even if it is not in charge of the provision of refuges and rape crisis centres etc. It is a move with some foresight by Tusla and one I really welcome.

There is the question of whether the additional 48 front-line staff in residential care will end the practice mentioned by the Deputy. I am not going to be bold enough to say that will end the practice, although I hope it can see it reduced. We need to reduce that practice and ensure that where a child needs residential care, it is provided in a proper and long-term residential care placement. The Deputy knows that cases are sometimes so urgent that these ad hocsolutions or locations for placement are used but it is not the practice we would like to see continue. It is important that in those cases we at least have the staff to support the young person wherever they are placed. We absolutely want to see permanent residential care run by either Tusla or the community and voluntary sector. I remind the Deputy of what I said to Deputy Costello earlier, which is that there is an extra €3 million for Tusla to enhance its residential care placement capacity this year. That is a positive step.