Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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80. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of companies contracted by Tusla to provide special emergency accommodation for children in care; and the amount paid to each company in each of the past ten years and to date in 2024. [8789/24]

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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The Minister’s Department has admitted to me through replies to parliamentary questions that it is placing children in special emergency accommodation that is unregulated, staffed by third party providers and rented. How much is the Department paying these companies?

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The Deputy is seeking information about companies that have been contracted by Tusla to provide emergency accommodation to children in care in each of the past ten years and to date in 2024. I understand that the information up to the first half of 2023 was released to the Deputy in response to Question No. 1362 of 11 September. The Deputy will be aware from that response that a total of 27 companies were contracted by Tusla between 2013 and the end of June 2023 in order to provide care for children in special emergency arrangements. Unfortunately, due to industrial action, Tusla has not been able to provide the full details requested by the Deputy about the period from July 2023 to date. However, Tusla has confirmed that this information is being compiled and will get it to the Deputy as soon as it is available.

In the interim, Tusla has completed an exercise to establish payments made over 2023 to the ten largest providers of special emergency arrangements. I note that these payments ranged from €3.5 million to more than €13 million over the year. I am informed that these figures may include payments for a range of other services to Tusla outside of SEAs, including agency staff for residential care centres or staff for other wraparound services.

Tusla is facing ongoing challenges in sourcing appropriate placements for children in the care of the State. This is due to a number of factors: difficulties in recruiting and retaining staff; the complexity of the presentations; and the number of children seeking international protection. I share the Deputy's concerns about the overreliance on SEAs. With the support of my Department, Tusla is working to reduce that overreliance. It has its residential care plan in place, which seeks to put 110 new beds into Tusla's system - so, not private beds, but Tusla beds - by the end of 2025. We are supporting that. In 2024, Tusla received its largest budget increase ever, given that I know how important it is to support the agency in caring for these vulnerable children.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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I understand that €90 million has been spent by the Department so far on special emergency arrangements.

Last month alone, 22 children went missing from State care. Previously, a 14-year-old girl who had been abducted by a criminal gang within minutes of being placed with Tusla was found one year later locked in a brothel. I try to raise these matters with the Minister, but he does not listen. A retired judge, Dermot Simms, tried to raise these matters with the Minister, but the Minister deleted his files, citing GDPR. A whistleblower tried to make a protected disclosure about unvetted care workers. Tusla tried to oppose that, but the commissioner has now ruled that Tusla must accept it. Last week on RTÉ radio, Tusla’s CEO stated that staff in SEAs were absolutely vetted. We now know from an article in The Irish Times yesterday that one company was providing falsified vetting documents to Tusla and that an internal Tusla report in July found that staff did not have up-to-date Garda clearances. The name of that company is Ideal Care Services. I understand that there is a Garda investigation into the matter. Has the Minister ever met the owner of that company?

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I do not believe I have, but I can clarify that point for the Deputy and revert to him.

The Deputy stated that I did not listen or engage. When he raised a question about this matter during my previous oral questions, I was prepared for it because of its importance, but the Deputy was not present. It is important that I put that point on the record.

As to what we are doing about this issue, I had extensive engagement with Tusla, An Garda Síochána, the special rapporteur on child protection and the Ombudsman for Children over last summer. That engagement was focused on the use of special emergency arrangements and, in particular, the situation of children in care and what the Garda was doing when children went missing from care. The Garda is reviewing Operation Cosnaím with a focus on how it traces people who go missing from care and will make proposals soon.

I am acutely aware of the pressures that the overreliance on SEAs creates. We are looking to give Tusla resources so that it does not have to rely on them so much, but while we are relying on them, we will try to put in place protective measures for the children in them.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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I have in my hand a document showing that the owner of the company being investigated for the alleged falsifying of vetting documents, which received millions of euro from the State for the unregulated care of vulnerable children, was on the same committee as the Minister back when the Minister was a councillor in his constituency. The Minister and Mr. Paul Reid, who went on to become the CEO of the HSE, sat on a joint policing committee with this individual quarter after quarter.

Has the Minister ever spoken to him about the provision of care? Second, why is he underfunding the voluntary and regulated sectors? That is at the heart of this situation. They cannot provide the necessary places because they are underfunded. We are pumping astronomical money into dodgy profit-motivated companies with poorer, unregulated services at a huge economic cost. Will the Minister meet the voluntary and regulated sectors to discuss these concerns?

Finally, given the number of times the Minister has been warned about the dangers of these arrangements and that his Department shredded warning reports from a judge; given that whistleblowers were ignored on this issue and are only being taken seriously now that it has appeared on the front page of a newspaper, is this not a resigning matter for him?

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I met the community and voluntary providers of residential care in January and discussed these issues in detail with them in terms of funding. I have set out in detail the additional funding I have been providing to Tusla in order that it can enact its residential care strategy and can put additional beds into the Tusla sector so we can reduce our reliance on special emergency arrangements. I will look at whether I served on the Fingal joint policing committee with this individual. It is a committee of about 40 individuals that meets on a quarterly basis. I will examine that. I certainly have never spoken to him on the issue of care.

I am very happy with, and had the Deputy been here a couple of weeks ago when we had the question about this I would have set out to him directly, the various steps I have taken over the last year around focusing on the safety of children in care.

It is a political charge -----

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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The regulated sector says the Minister is not meeting them.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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It is a political charge and the Deputy is very good at that. He is very good at the Facebook moment. No doubt, the video has been clipped already. But ultimately I can set out in real detail the engagements I have had with the Ombudsman for Children, An Garda Síochána and Tusla to ensure the safety of children in care.

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Táim ag dul anois go dtí ceist Uimh. 82, in ainm an Teachta Kathleen Funchion.

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Tá brón orm.