{"id":664800,"date":"2026-08-31T07:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T07:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/664800\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T07:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T07:20:11","slug":"tusla-overruled-conflict-of-interest-concerns-to-award-firm-e2-5m-contract-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/664800\/","title":{"rendered":"Tusla overruled conflict of interest concerns to award firm \u20ac2.5m contract \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tusla<\/a>\u2019s senior management overruled internal concerns about a conflict of interest when handing a company a \u20ac2.5 million a year contract to house vulnerable children in State care, internal documents show. <\/p>\n

During a scramble to source accommodation late last year for underage asylum seekers, the State care system was deemed to be in \u201ccrisis\u201d due to the shortage of beds. This meant an increasing number of minors, who were arriving without guardians, had been left \u201cwandering the streets\u201d during the day, Tusla emails show. <\/p>\n

The internal correspondence between senior officials, seen by The Irish Times, highlights how pressure to source accommodation led Tusla, the child and family agency, to disregard concerns about companies offering to open and run centres on its behalf. <\/p>\n

One firm, Dunlicky View Residential, applied to manage a care home for 15 teenage asylum seekers in State care last year. <\/p>\n

An internal Tusla panel assessing the Co Limerick company recommended the firm should not be given a contract, documents show. The panel said possible conflicts of interest had not been disclosed by Dunlicky View, including the fact that several employees had previously worked for Tusla. <\/p>\n

The assessment said a \u20ac2.65 million a year contract \u2013 later reduced to \u20ac2.5 million \u2013 was \u201csignificantly\u201d higher than usual pricing limits and \u201cdid not demonstrate value for money\u201d. <\/p>\n

Tusla has in recent years become concerned about staff leaving to enter the for-profit sector, as the number of companies emerging to operate emergency accommodation for children in care ballooned. It introduced guidelines to guard against any perception that former Tusla employees had an \u201cunfair advantage\u201d in winning lucrative contracts. Companies are required to declare possible conflicts and may be restricted from contracted work for a year. <\/p>\n

Internal emails show several Dunlicky View staff were previously \u201clong-serving employees\u201d of Tusla, but the company insisted there were no conflicts of interest to report. <\/p>\n

The company\u2019s owner and director, David Lehane (54), a Co Limerick-based businessman, did not wish to comment when contacted. <\/p>\n

Tusla senior management intervened to allow Dunlicky View open a 15-bed care home to help relieve pressure on the care system. <\/p>\n

Lorna Kavanagh, interim director of Tusla\u2019s service for unaccompanied child asylum seekers, said young people were being put into hotels overnight and then spending the day sitting in Tusla offices. The situation was \u201ccompletely unsustainable\u201d, she told senior officials in an October 31st email. <\/p>\n

The lack of available beds in care homes was resulting in young people \u201cwandering the streets\u201d during the day, said Anthony O\u2019Leary, Tusla\u2019s head of quality and regulation.<\/p>\n

However, O\u2019Leary cautioned that a rush to approve companies for contracts could cause problems down the line. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is our judgment on possible conflict of interest that counts, not theirs,\u201d he wrote in a December 12th email. <\/p>\n

Gerry Hone, the agency\u2019s national director of services, gave the go ahead for Dunlicky View to open the group care home, given the risk to children in hotels was \u201cmuch higher\u201d. <\/p>\n

The emails and internal documents were released following Freedom of Information requests. <\/p>\n

\u201cApproval for Dunlicky Residential was recommended to reduce reliance on placing unaccompanied minors in emergency hotel accommodation,\u201d a Tusla spokeswoman said. \u201cThe centre was approved to open on a temporary basis while the service provider approval process continued.\u201d <\/p>\n

Tusla had been dealing with \u201can unprecedented increase in demand\u201d across all its services at the time, she added. <\/p>\n

Lehane has been involved in a number of businesses, including a venture building primary care centres for the HSE. He was previously a director of European Helicopter Academy, a now dissolved company that offered private helicopter flying lessons out of Weston Airport in Dublin. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tusla\u2019s senior management overruled internal concerns about a conflict of interest when handing a company a \u20ac2.5 million…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,18,60,19,17,1844,8504],"class_list":["post-664800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-eire","tag-hse","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-limerick","tag-tusla"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117188914307881924","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664800","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=664800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}