{"id":587308,"date":"2026-07-15T17:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T17:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/587308\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T17:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T17:58:10","slug":"tusla-reports-unprecedented-demand-as-referrals-pass-100000-for-first-time-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/587308\/","title":{"rendered":"Tusla reports \u2018unprecedented demand\u2019 as referrals pass 100,000 for first time \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tusla<\/a> needs \u201cas much resourcing as possible\u201d as it faces \u201cunprecedented\u201d and increasing demands on it services, the chairwoman of the child and family agency has said. <\/p>\n

Madeleine Clarke, speaking at the publication of the agency\u2019s 2025 annual report, described as \u201cstartling\u201d and \u201cdistressing\u201d that the number of child protection referrals to Tusla exceeded 100,000 last year for the first time. <\/p>\n

It had 106,444 child safety and welfare referrals, equivalent to one in every 23 children, with emotional abuse being the most common concern.<\/p>\n

This represents a 10 per cent increase compared to 2024. The referrals related to 55,483 individual children.<\/p>\n

There was \u201can increasing number of children and families out there who are in distress, who are in trouble\u201d, said Clarke. <\/p>\n

\u201cParents who are being increasingly challenged to provide the kind of care and nurture for their children they want to provide, usually for reasons that are completely beyond their control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among reasons cited for the increase were population growth, pressures of the cost-of-living and housing crises, greater awareness of the signs of abuse and an increase in numbers of unaccompanied children seeking asylum last year. <\/p>\n

Emotional abuse was the most commonly reported concern (45 per cent), followed by physical abuse (26 per cent), neglect (16 per cent) and sexual abuse (14 per cent).<\/p>\n

About a third of referrals were made by garda\u00ed, followed by teachers (12 per cent), safeguarding officers (11 per cent) and social workers (10 per cent).<\/p>\n

The \u201csignificant\u201d rise in referrals \u201cchallenged\u201d frontline services, the report noted. <\/p>\n

\u201cDespite an increase in funding levels, we remained significantly challenged in recruiting key skill sets of social work and social care staff,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Acknowledging a 14 per cent increase in funding for the agency this year compared with 2025, secured by Minister for Children Norma Foley in last year\u2019s budget, Clarke noted negotiations were under way between Foley\u2019s department and the Department of Public Expenditure for Budget 2027. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s completely clear that the demand and the pressure is so high that we definitely need as much resourcing as possible,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Some 5,879 children were in care by the end of last year, 5,058 of whom were in foster care, according to the report.<\/p>\n

Noting an \u201cunprecedented demand for placements\u201d, the agency said that although progress had been made in scaling residential capacity, it continued to be \u201cchallenged\u201d to provide a registered emergency placement for \u201call young people\u201d who required an \u201cimmediate place of safety\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has resulted in an ongoing requirement for the use of special emergency arrangements (SEAs),\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Children or teenagers are accommodated in unregulated facilities provided by private operators under special emergency arrangements. They are not inspected by the State\u2019s health services watchdog, the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa).<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, The Irish Times reported that Tusla paid more than \u20ac36 million<\/a> to such operators to accommodate children in the first seven months of 2025. <\/p>\n

At the end of November last year, 185 children were being accommodated in these facilities.<\/p>\n

Such accommodation is \u201conly used when every other option has been exhausted\u201d, the annual report noted, and is often after a \u201cbreakdown\u201d of a placement.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks the agency announced most SEAs used in 2025 now came under Hiqa\u2019s supervision. Emergency arrangements would be used for a maximum of 45 days, it said. <\/p>\n

Ongoing challenges in recruiting and retaining staff to work in the most secure form of care, known as special care, meant just 14 of the 26 beds were operating. <\/p>\n

Kate Duggan, chief executive of Tusla, said 2025 \u201ca year of significant challenge, marked by tragic events, capacity pressures in our special care services and growing difficulty in meeting the needs of an increasing number of children, young people and families that require a whole-of-State response,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tusla needs \u201cas much resourcing as possible\u201d as it faces \u201cunprecedented\u201d and increasing demands on it services, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[23864,787,9,10,18,788,47903,13,14,34477,6,789,19,194883,17,249225,11,12,15,16,5,4335,119,7,791,8],"class_list":["post-587308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-arrowhead-stadium","tag-bestof","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-essential","tag-fbl","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-headlines","tag-horizontal","tag-ie","tag-international-team-soccer","tag-ireland","tag-kansas-city-missouri","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-soccer","tag-sport","tag-top-stories","tag-topix","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116925294673151388","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}