Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and the Minister of State. I will pick up on a few things.

I appreciate that the issue of immigration is very difficult. It is also not entirely within the control of the Department. While I welcome the positive changes the Minister and the Minister of State talk about, it is important to highlight that a lot of issues in other Departments need to be addressed if we are to effectively support people coming here fleeing persecution and seeking safety, as is absolutely their right.

Given that I am supposed to stick to the Estimates, I will move on to talk about Tusla. The Minister mentioned the challenges around placements. Are there any cost controls in Tusla as regards private placements? The marginal cost of private placements, particularly, for example, private foster placements, is higher. There is often a greater impact on, say, the time social workers spend because they are often further away. While the Minister talks about increased State provision, which is welcome, I would differentiate between private and voluntary agencies because they are very different and provide very different services. We have to remember that the key priority of private services is their own profits. Private services cost more and are more focused on their own profits. Tusla has a problem trying to get placements, but there is also a problem with the acceleration of the use of private placements to fill that gap. It is costing money and leaving a situation where Tusla is less able to provide its own placements because of that.

Another thing I will ask about is youth affairs, youth work and the funding in that regard. This committee did an excellent report on that whole issue. I think anyone who is involved in that area would quickly speak about the need for increased funding. One of the challenges coming up, however, is that there will be demands for pay increases, particularly as the public sector pay agreement comes to fruition. When that happens, there will be more demands. In the past, many of these youth work organisations had to address pay restoration without necessarily their overall operating budget increasing to make up that extra pay-related cost. If we are seeing a public service pay deal coming down the line, will they be supported in those regards?