I acknowledge that the Minister is here tonight to take this Topical Issue. I am sure she will agree that last week's "RTÉ Investigates" was appalling. It gave us just a glimpse into the experience of some children in care and what they experience. I certainly felt, having watched it, that somebody needs to be held accountable for what we saw in the programme and it cannot just be Tusla. I have said before that the Government is in charge. The Minister and the Department have a responsibility for children who are in care, our most vulnerable children in the State. Far too often it is easy for all of us to point the finger at Tusla. It has been too much of an easy out and the time for that is over.

The system we saw last week on our television screens is one that is causing harm to children. We saw children who are being neglected. It is a system that consists of children who go hungry and children who run away because they cannot bear to be where they are put. It has actively led to children being exploited and being assaulted. It has brought vulnerable children into a world of drugs and crime. It has led to severe mental health issues and it has led to homelessness. These operators are being paid for this service and they are being paid in the millions. It is, frankly, disgusting that this is what they are being paid for.

The use of unregulated profit-driven residential settings has to be banned. There should be no room for profit making when it comes to looking after the most vulnerable children in our State. It is not just about a ban but about building capacity in the State system. This is there in terms of the voluntary residential services. They are ready, willing and able. They want to grow and they want to do more. Why can they not do so? It is because the funding they receive cannot and does not operate the services they have today. They are fundraising for their services. We need to give them funding that is adequate to do the job they do and we need more of them.

I thank the Minister for being here. We dealt with this to some degree last week but, as Deputy Kerrane has said, it is utterly shocking and harrowing. There are no terms to describe the story of Max, which we all saw on "RTÉ Investigates". We are talking about special emergency arrangements or accommodations that are not in any way suitable. He was missing for two and a half hours before anybody noticed and before the child was abused, and this is only part of it.

Unfortunately, this is a representation of many children who are in these inappropriate settings. It is all we can call them. They are inappropriate settings for which we are paying huge money. We heard it was €2,000 per child per week. This is utterly frightening. I raised this with the Minister last week and she told me that last year there were 170 special emergency accommodations and now there are 70. She said she is talking about reducing the number by 50%. We need to see special emergency accommodation gone. My fear is that the pressure is on, rightly, following "RTÉ Investigates" and the shock that everybody got. We also understand the complexity of the issues, the lack of addiction services and the lack of mental health services and early interventions for families.

We are still talking about Tusla, which is dealing with these issues, probably a lot later because of the size of the caseloads. It is dealing with them a lot later when the issues have become a lot more complex. While we would prefer to see special care facilities funded, if special emergency accommodation is not being utilised, what is happening with the kids who have to be presenting at this time? My fear is that even if we are avoiding using special emergency accommodation, which we should long term, we are talking about inappropriate care, inappropriate supports and inappropriate accommodation.

I will begin by expressing my thanks to Deputies Kerrane and Ó Murchú for raising this important issue and for offering me the opportunity to respond. I acknowledge, as I have previously, how upsetting it was to watch and listen to the experiences of the young people interviewed as part of last week's programme, and I commend and thank each one of them on speaking out. It is vital that we have the opportunity to hear from young people with experience of the care system and it is important that we listen to them.

For the information of the House, I would like to share that the vast majority of children in State care, 96% in fact, are in foster care or residential care. In comparison with our international peers, we are doing well on this front. Nine out of ten young people in foster or residential care are engaged in education, and three in every four young people leaving care and entering aftercare services are now participating in education and training, according to the CSO.

However, Tusla also deals with children and young people in care who are often coming from highly traumatic situations through no fault of their own, and in some instances foster care and residential care settings can break down. Last year Tusla received 106,444 child protection and welfare referrals, up 10% on 2024. I was pleased to secure a 14% increase in funding for Tusla in the most recent budget, bringing its overall budget to €1.4 billion in 2026. Tusla had approximately 5,661 whole-time staff at end of 2025, 343 more than at the same time in the previous year, including a 3.15% rise in social workers.

As regards special emergency accommodation, Tusla has experienced a 500% increase in the number of separated children seeking international protection being referred to the agency since 2022, along with an increasing number of children with more complex needs. This challenge is not unique to Ireland. The Department, along with Tusla, recognises that the use of special emergency arrangements is far from ideal. The Department is proactively supporting Tusla to improve the availability of placements and to expand capacity across its network.

Significantly, the use of special emergency arrangements to provide placement for separated children seeking international protection has reduced significantly over the last year, dropping from 105 at the end of 2024 to three as of last week.

As I mentioned last week, these three are, in fact, cases of disputed age and as a result are being placed in special emergency accommodation until the issues that have arisen are resolved.

The reduction in numbers being facilitated in special emergency accommodation has been achieved by opening 79 additional registered residential centres to support the large number of unaccompanied minors in the State. The Department is also proactively supporting Tusla to improve the availability of further placements and expand capacity across its network.

It is important to note the number of unregistered special emergency arrangements has significantly reduced this year. Some 19 centres are now categorised in line with legislation as emergency placements under the governance of Tusla and subject to inspection and monitoring by HIQA; 35 centres are in the process of registration; and 19 centres have completed registration and will be subject to Tusla's inspection and monitoring service in line with all private residential placements. This means that by the start of May this year, Tusla will have reduced the number of emergency placements that are not registered by almost 50%. The work to move that to a zero point continues this year.

I thank the Minister. In her closing remarks, she might let us know the action that has been taken. Has she met Tusla since that programme was aired last week, for example? Why are we not looking at the 13 voluntary residential services that have agreements in place with Tusla? Staff in them have experience of 25, 30 and more years' experience. We should be looking at those providers. There should not be any room for profit-making when it comes to children in the care of the State. Again, I make the point that we have residential services in the voluntary sector that are regulated to the hilt. They have to account for every single red cent. They are fundraising to keep their doors open to stand still. We are throwing money then at private providers, some of which are providing what we saw last week on the television. Can the Minister come back to us specifically on those voluntary residential services?

I thank the Deputies for raising this important issue. In order to overcome the challenges within the care system that were highlighted on the programme and which have been raised by the Deputies, which I acknowledge, the Department secured an overall increase of €177 million for Tusla in the most recent budget. That is representing a 14% increase in Tusla's budget over 2025. This brings Tusla's total budget to over €1.4 billion. Additionally, Tusla plans to invest a total of €286 million in expanding mainstream residential care in 2026; an additional €53 million of current funding compared with 2025. As I mentioned previously this evening, 96% of all children in State care are placed in foster care or residential care. In this regard, in addition to building on the capacity of mainstream residential placements for children, prioritisation has also been given to building on supports with respect to foster care, which resulted in a 21% increase to the foster care allowance in 2024, a new initial placement payment to foster carers, improved travel allowances and greater access to therapeutic and peer supports.

I want to assure the Deputes that officials within the Department are proactively engaging with their counterparts in Tusla to continue to build on the supports that foster carers can avail of. The Department also expanded Tusla's capital budget to €35 million in 2026, which represents growth of 100% since 2024. That refers to the provision of additional residential places. This investment will support Tusla to expand its residential care, as has been outlined by the Deputies, including the provision of step-down units for children leaving special care. Three new step-down units are scheduled to come on stream. Two will become available in December of this year and one in January of next year. This will, in turn, add to capacity in special care going forward. As I said, significant work has also been undertaken to reduce the number of unregistered special emergency arrangements. Last year, there were 170 such facilities and we now have reduced this number to 70. We will continue to do more in this space going forward.

I would also like to confirm to the House that the Department has also engaged with children and young people on a consistent basis in the past year both through the care experiences project and through the significant consultation that has been undertaken as part of the development of a new national policy framework for alternative care. Combined, this research and policy development will allow us, as a State, for the very first time, to take a strategic approach towards the future of the care system, guided by the lived experience of the young people who have first-hand experience of the care system.