At no time in Tusla’s 12-year existence have all 26 of the agency’s special care beds – intended for the most vulnerable and at-risk children – been open.
For a “short period” in 2022 there were 18 open, Tusla chief executive Kate Duggan told the High Court on Tuesday. Just 15 are operational.
This was “absolutely” Tusla’s failure for which she apologised “unreservedly”.
Ms Duggan was giving evidence in proceedings taken by parents of two children whom the High Court had ordered be detained in special care, the most secure form of care, for their own safety, but who could not get a bed as none was available.
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One of the children got a bed last week, 10 weeks after an order to be detained. The preteen’s child’s life was “at risk” due to their involvement in criminality, the drugs trade and travelling in stolen cars.
Another child, aged 16 and involved in criminality, using drugs and “deteriorating” remained without a bed months after an order was made, the court heard on Tuesday.
Ms Duggan outlined efforts to recruit, retain and encourage social graduates into special care work.
Each bed requires a minimum of seven staff, according to ratios set by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa).
Opening the remaining 11 beds would require 77 additional special care workers.
Money was not the issue in recruiting staff to work in an area Ms Duggan said could be “very challenging” due to “the level of violence and harassment at times”.
“We are fully funded to open all 26 beds,” she said several times. She clarified, however, this funding was to pay staff within public-sector pay guidelines as set by what was then the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER).
After many years asking to increase special care pay, a new grade was approved by the Department of Children, with DPER’s consent in 2024.
Special care workers are now entitled to salaries up to €70,387 and between €4,500 and €11,500 more than social care workers elsewhere, putting them almost on a par with workers in Oberstown children’s detention campus.
Tusla’s challenge was the lack of applicants for the challenging work in a “full-employment market”, Ms Duggan said. She described suggestions that much higher salaries would draw more applicants as “hypothetical”.
The agency’s efforts led to 31 new special care staff recruited last year, but 24 left – a net gain of seven staff and just one bed, Ms Duggan said.
Alan Brady SC, for the parents of the preteen child, said Tusla was “in the centre of triangle”, having to comply with Hiqa regulations on one side, DPER pay-scales on another and High Court orders on the third.
“You can only satisfy two of the three sides of the triangle? You ... have chosen to let down the High Court,” Mr Brady said.
Ms Duggan said Hiqa could close a special care unit if staffing ratios were ignored. She hoped “efforts made in the last 24 months” would see “two or three” additional beds open in 2026.
It remained “very challenging to get to full capacity”, she said.
One child at risk waited more than two months for a bed while another still goes without. Meanwhile, while 11 beds lie empty.
