More than €8m has been paid by Tusla to a private company providing emergency accommodation for children in care through what are known as special emergency arrangements (SEAs).
A reply to a parliamentary question submitted by Aontú to the Minister for Children states that one company received €8,137,033 in the past 18 months.
The figures were outlined in a letter from Tusla to TD Peadar Tóibín's office, which show that payments to the company rose from €35,099 in 2021 to €4,084,351 last year.
This year, €4,052,682 was paid to the company up until June.
In 2018, it received €238,266 from Tusla to provide special emergency arrangements. That figure rose to €389,934 in 2019.
No payment was recorded in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic struck, while in 2021 the company was paid €35,099.
However, the reply from Tusla shows that last year the figure rose to over €4m. A further €4m was paid in the first half of 2023.
On 9 May this year, the interim CEO of Tusla, Kate Duggan, told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children that there were 58 children and young people in special emergency arrangements that week.
In its response to the parliamentary question, Tusla pointed out that given the current accommodation crisis in Ireland, block booking of accommodation in relation to SEAs was often necessary, either by providers or by Tusla, "to ensure an element of stability for the young person in an SEA".
It said: "This may include block bookings across all available accommodation types."
Last year, the Child and Family Agency received 82,855 referrals. The comparative figure to end of May 2023 was 38,511.
At the end of January 2023, there were 5,597 children in care.
Of the children in care, 90.2% (5,049) are in foster care, 6.9% (386) are in residential care and the remaining 2.9% (162) are in "other" care placements, including supported lodgings, at home under a care order, other residential centres (eg disability) or a detention centre.
SEAs required in complex situations - Tusla
In emergency situations, where there is a placement breakdown or where children come in to care unexpectedly, children are placed in emergency or temporary foster placements or in registered emergency residential provision until a more permanent suitable placement can be identified.
In some cases, where a shortfall in capacity means a regulated emergency placement or a placement in statutory, community and voluntary, or private care services (Foster Care/Residential Care) is not available, a special emergency arrangement (SEA) is required to ensure an immediate place of safety for a young person, according to Tusla.
These are unregulated placements in rented accommodation, apartments and houses with staffing from third party providers, Tusla said.
It pointed out that "efforts are made" to move young people to regulated settings as soon as possible, once alternative placements become available.
SEAs are most often required for children and young people with complex needs, it said, often related to "challenging behaviour" due to trauma they have experienced, substance misuse, mental health issues or involvement in criminality.
"These children and young people require an interagency response and timely access to services across the HSE, Tusla and in some cases, the services of juvenile justice," it said.
The young people in these arrangements, primarily single occupancy arrangements, have a dedicated social worker, care plan in place and a staffing ratio of at least 2:1, according to the Child and Family Agency.
It said there are "internal Tusla processes for the approval, placement, and governance of these arrangements to mitigate risk and promote the safety and well-being of the individual young people".
€17.5m paid to three firms over past five years
In the past 18 months, two other companies providing special emergency arrangements received €3,610.847 and €5,058,493 respectively.
In total, €17,499,672 has been paid to the three companies providing these services in the past five years.
There are concerns over the governance and oversight of SEA's, particularly around the registration of companies providing the service and over garda vetting.
A spokesperson for Aontú said the party submitted the parliamentary questions "on the back of numerous concerns reported to our offices regarding some private companies and the standards of care to the children and the extraordinary profits supposedly being made by the companies".
Other political parties, including People Before Profit, have also been contacted by sources with concerns.
Tusla stated in its reply to Aontú 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".
Inspections of children's services by HIQA last year found greater use of unregulated special emergency accommodation by Tusla, not only for unaccompanied children but also for older children with complex and additional needs.
It said the lack of appropriate alternative placements for children in care required "a national strategic approach".
Tusla said the Practice Assurance and Service Management (PASM) Team supports Tusla local social work and regional teams through a schedule of "intelligence-led monitoring visits2 to individual SEAs.
"This support is to assess the care being provided to the young people, and to assess that an acceptable temporary arrangement is in place, in line with the requirements set out in the aforementioned approval, governance and oversight processes," it said.
A particular emphasis of these PASM visits, according to Tusla, is to meet and consult with the young people in these arrangements to ensure their views are gathered and considered.
The three companies about which Aontú sought information have been prioritised for PASM visits according to Tusla, and where issues and concerns have been identified, service improvement measures have, and continue to be, put in place.
"More broadly speaking, where any safeguarding concerns are identified on a PASM monitoring visit, these are escalated to operational teams for immediate action, and identified significant risks are escalated to the relevant regional management, and/or the Agency's Executive Management Team for follow-up as appropriate," it said.
The PQ response states that Tusla has established a central compliance process for all SEA providers nationally.
"This includes the establishment of a centralised national database of staff screening information relating to each SEA provider to ensure appropriate levels of assurance in terms of vetting, qualifications and experience in relation to any third-party staff providing care under SEAs," it said.
In addition to these measures, it said all service providers who provide care packages with accommodation are required to apply for registration, within specified periods of time and/or within certain conditions, with Tusla's Alternative Care Inspection and Monitoring Service (ACIMS) for the purposes of inspection in line with the provisions of Part VIII of the Child Care Act, 1991.
It concluded by saying it could not comment on any ongoing concerns with individual providers, however, "where concerns are identified, the Agency takes immediate action to address directly with the provider".
In a statement Aontú called on Tusla to name the companies in question.
The spokesperson described it 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 much money this translates to - per child per week of care - for each of the three private companies.
"We need detail too on the standard of the physical accommodation being used to house these children," the spokesperson said.
Last month, the Child Law Project published a letter by a former Dublin District Court judge who wrote to numerous Government ministers and other State agencies in May, expressing his "utmost concern" over the welfare of some children in care, and the likelihood of future legal challenges as a result of what he described as current "systemic" shortcomings.
According to the Child Law Project, Judge Dermot Simms sent the letter - accompanied by six reports - to four ministers, a number of relevant State bodies, and an Oireachtas committee calling for immediate and coordinated action to remedy the current crisis.
