Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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On a weekly basis, there are children in this situation. These are children whose needs are very complex. Unfortunately, they can be very young children who may have substance abuse issues and issues of violence and the like, where they need a multiperson 24-hour team and the only place to provide this is either in hotel or rented accommodation. These situations are unfortunately becoming more common. These emergency placements are a significant focus for Tusla right now. There is a general recognition that these ad hoc placements are not the best provision for these children but because of the complexity of the needs, it is harder to get foster carers or indeed permanent residential care places for them. There is a concern, because these children can be particularly chaotic, if they go into even a residential care situation they will disrupt the regimes and care of the other children there. These placements arise in a situation of last resort but there are more of them arising on an annual basis.