Tusla paid one firm over €8m for accomodation for children in care

TUSLA HAS paid more than €8m to a private company providing emergency accommodation for children in care under special emergency arrangements.

In reply to a parliamentary question submitted by Aontú to the Minister for Children, the child and family agency stated that one company received €8.14 million in the last 18 months.

The figures, outlined in a letter from Tusla to the office of Aontú party leader Peadar Tóibín's , show payments to the company rose from €35,000 in 2021 to €4.08 million last year.

In the past 18 months, two other companies providing special emergency arrangements received €3.6 million and €5.06 million respectively. In total, €17.5 million has been paid to the three companies providing these services in the past five years.

A special emergency arrangement (SEA) is an unregulated placement in rented accommodation, apartments and houses with staffing from third party providers, according to Tusla.

They are used where a shortfall in capacity means a regulated emergency placement or a placement in statutory, community and voluntary, or private care services cannot be found, in cases of a placement breakdown or where children come in to care unexpectedly.

In its reply to Aontú, Tusla stated that there are "processes" for the approval, governance and ongoing oversight of all SEAs and that these processes are reviewed on an ongoing basis to "further strengthen governance".

A spokesperson for Aontú said they submitted the parliamentary question after 'numerous concerns' were reported to their office over governance and oversight of SEA's and over garda vetting and registration of companies providing the service. 

In a statement, the party called on Tusla to name the companies in question, describing the amounts paid as "an extraordinary amount of money", and further evidence that the care system "is bursting at the seams".

"Tusla must provide absolute clarity firstly on the names of these companies and the vetting process and inspection practices and frequencies," he said.

Aontú has also called on the agency to clarify how the amounts paid to each company add up per child per week of care.