The introduction of additional cost-saving measures would “significantly impact frontline services” for the most vulnerable children in the State, the child and family agency Tusla will tell a Dáil committee.
Tusla chief executive Kate Duggan is expected to tell the Committee of Public Accounts on Thursday that this year the agency will deliver value-for-money savings of about €112 million on its overall budget of €1.4 billion.
“At this point, we anticipate that we will deliver our service plan for 2026 within our allocated resource.”
“However, the demand for placements for at-risk children remains very high. Any further cost-containment actions beyond the measures already taken would significantly impact frontline services and placements, impacting directly on services to the most vulnerable children in the State.”
RM Block
“Financial management cannot be considered separately from the realities of delivering child and family services,” she is expected to say in an opening statement to the committee.
Duggan is expected to say some of the greatest pressures facing the agency have arisen in areas where demand is increasing and where suitable services or placements are difficult to secure.
“These pressures can have significant financial consequences, but they also have very real consequences for individual children and families.”
It is unclear as to whether Duggan’s comments about additional cost-containment measures relate to moves to generate more than €400 million in savings across Government departments and agencies under a new levy to offset overspending in the education sector.
The Irish Times reported earlier this month that the Department of Children, which was set a goal of making savings of €42 million overall under the Government’s levy, had warned Tusla it would be affected by the initiative. On May 28th the department told the agency: “Tusla will be included in the public service bodies whose 2027 budget will be levied to reflect overruns in the Department of Education.”
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In a reply in early June, Tusla expressed concern at being included in the levy “when we are the agency with the statutory remit for the safety and welfare of children, responding to the most vulnerable children in the State ... with ... the potential risk of harm to children and families, or poorer outcomes as a result of service constriction at a time of unprecedented demand”.
In April, Ombudsman for Children Niall Muldoon warned that underinvestment in Tusla could impact its ability to meet demand amid a surge in referrals and an expanded brief.
In correspondence to Minister for Children Norma Foley, Muldoon called for a review of the level of funding given to the child and family agency after a 10-year period that has seen its remit “expand considerably” and referrals up 125 per cent.
Duggan is expected to tell the public accounts committee that during 2025, Tusla responded to more than 106,000 child protection and welfare referrals, an increase of more than 100 per cent since the establishment of the agency in 2014, and an annual increase of 10 per cent on 2024.
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“At the end of 2025, we had almost 6,000 children and young people in State care. Almost nine in 10 children in care were cared for by 3,529 foster carers. A further 526 live in residential care homes, supported by professionals from Tusla and our partners. Ninety-four per cent of our children in care were engaged in education and 81 per cent of those transitioning to aftercare remaining in education/training or securing employment.”
