Tusla has warned it will breach its budget by nearly €68 million this year as it struggles to deal with huge demand for its services.
The child and family agency warned in an update in May that it had already overspent by €8.9 million but this figure was likely to rise by the end of the year.
Tusla said its expected overspend for 2025 was €67.8 million, which included €7.6 million for children in the international protection process and refugees from Ukraine.
In a monthly briefing, the agency said demand for its services was growing, especially for residential care, fostering, legal bills, and caring for separated children seeking asylum.
It said it is trying to cut costs by expanding residential provision to replace special emergency arrangements that were a “significant cost driver.”
Tusla said some savings had been made in this area in 2024 through a “strict pricing arrangement” and that this would continue this year. However, the agency warned that costs remained “unpredictable” due to the inflated cost of placements.
“As the majority of Tusla’s expenditure is on demand-led arrangements, it is not possible to reduce expenditure materially to meet the budget allocated without adversely impacting on services for vulnerable children and families,” the report said.
It said there was likely to be an overspend of €38.8 million on placements for special care, fostering, and private residential arrangements.
Tusla also detailed the high cost of “out-of-state placements” which involves a small number of children brought to the United Kingdom when services are not available in Ireland.
The briefing said: “If the agency cannot place children into special care in the existing facilities in 2025, this has the potential to impact on this year’s overspend.”
It said costs for staff travel were also likely to be up by as much as €2.2 million despite curbs on expenses being introduced.
Tusla also detailed a sharp rise in the number of placements for separated children who had applied for international protection in Ireland.
The overspend was predicted to be about €6.1 million on providing 343 residential placements for vulnerable asylum seekers without parents.
Other areas of concern for Tusla were Guardian ad Litem (GAL) arrangements under which a person was appointed to represent the interests of a child in court.
“There is continued increased usage of GALs by the court and this also has an increased legal cost,” the document said.
The child and family agency also predicted an overspend for child refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine, according to records released under Freedom of Information.
Asked about the budget difficulties, a Tusla spokesman said: “Throughout 2025, the agency has experienced unprecedented demand for services, which was unpredictable in nature, and we have worked to prioritise cost-saving initiatives around these contributing factors.
“Tusla has strong budget controls in place, however the projected overspend for 2025 is the result of demand-led pressures in the agency for the accommodation of children in the care of the State as well as costs for accommodating unaccompanied minors and associated legal and Guardian ad Litem costs.”
