Tusla and the Government clashed repeatedly over a national crisis in special care, with a senior official accusing the State agency of taking “insufficient” action to help the most at-risk children.
A chronic shortage of secure accommodation for some of the most vulnerable children in the State prompted the Department of Children to express “grave concerns” that one child was at risk of dying without a place.
The department told Tusla its continued failure to find special care places for children had caused “high-profile litigation” that has required State resources.
Detention in special care is a last resort for children aged 11 to 17 whose health and safety are at risk. Children can only be held in special care on foot of a High Court order. Once such an order is made, Tusla is legally obliged to find a special care place for the child.
RM Block
Since 2023, Tusla has faced multiple high-profile court challenges and been sharply criticised by the High Court and Supreme Court for failing to find special care places for all children requiring it. A national shortage of spaces has been exacerbated by high staff turnover and sick leave as a result of workplace injuries.
In early 2023, Tusla chief executive Kate Duggan wrote to the agency’s parent department saying it was “imperative to highlight the fact that these young people remain at significant risk in the community”.
“There is a real risk that one of these young people could suffer a fatal outcome,” she said. In response, the department noted the warning with “especially grave concern” but added later in its letter that “it is not clear, at this juncture, what specifically Tusla is requesting of the Department”.
Correspondence, which was released under Freedom of Information laws, continued over two years including during an incident in July 2023 when a High Court judge asked to hear directly from then-children’s minister Roderic O’Gorman on why no special care places were available for a high-risk girl.
In a series of letters exchanged between February and March this year, tensions escalated, with Tusla and the department accusing each other of making “misleading” or inaccurate statements.
Kevin McCarthy, secretary general at the Department of Children, took exception to Ms Duggan’s “considerably misleading” claim that the department had not tried to engage with Tusla about the crisis in special care at any point between 2024 and 2025.
Mr McCarthy also told Tulsa that the “the pace and ambition of the collective actions taken by Tusla have been insufficient to date to address a situation which has placed a small number of young people at risk of harm for significant periods of time over the last 18 months”.
The failure to resolve this issue “has led to high-profile litigation which of itself is resource intensive for Tusla, this Department, and the Department of Public Expenditure”, the letter said.
In her almost 2,000-world reply, Ms Duggan suggested the “content and inaccuracies” of Mr McCarthy’s letter could be “misconstrued as a concern in relation to the performance” of Tusla or its board. Ms Duggan said Tusla would “refute” the view that her agency’s response was insufficient. She wrote that the department’s criticism “could be perceived to call into question the performance” of the child and family agency. She told the senior civil servant that Tusla would “be obliged if your correspondence could be reconsidered”.
In response, Mr McCarthy said he could “assure” Ms Duggan he “did not seek to comment on Tusla’s performance” and he recognised the agency’s “extensive” efforts. But he added: “It is simply a statement of fact that these efforts have proved insufficient to date, as evidenced by the continuing issue of Tusla not being in a position [to] fulfil the requirements of Special Care Orders.”
In a statement, Tusla said the correspondence “represents a shared concern” over special care. “Significant progress” has been made in this area, and as of Thursday, “there is no child awaiting a special care bed who requires one”, it said.
