I thank the Minister for being here. We dealt with this to some degree last week but, as Deputy Kerrane has said, it is utterly shocking and harrowing. There are no terms to describe the story of Max, which we all saw on "RTÉ Investigates". We are talking about special emergency arrangements or accommodations that are not in any way suitable. He was missing for two and a half hours before anybody noticed and before the child was abused, and this is only part of it. Unfortunately, this is a representation of many children who are in these inappropriate settings. It is all we can call them. They are inappropriate settings for which we are paying huge money. We heard it was €2,000 per child per week. This is utterly frightening. I raised this with the Minister last week and she told me that last year there were 170 special emergency accommodations and now there are 70. She said she is talking about reducing the number by 50%. We need to see special emergency accommodation gone. My fear is that the pressure is on, rightly, following "RTÉ Investigates" and the shock that everybody got. We also understand the complexity of the issues, the lack of addiction services and the lack of mental health services and early interventions for families. We are still talking about Tusla, which is dealing with these issues, probably a lot later because of the size of the caseloads. It is dealing with them a lot later when the issues have become a lot more complex. While we would prefer to see special care facilities funded, if special emergency accommodation is not being utilised, what is happening with the kids who have to be presenting at this time? My fear is that even if we are avoiding using special emergency accommodation, which we should long term, we are talking about inappropriate care, inappropriate supports and inappropriate accommodation.

Sentiment score: -0.12

I will also follow up. The Minister stated that "by the start of May this year, Tusla will have reduced the number of emergency placements that are not registered by almost 50%". When are we taking that from? Are we talking about the 70 there at the moment becoming 35? We are literally talking about the end of this week. I am going to put that question again. There are obviously complex cases. We get the idea of the huge issue in respect of separated children seeking international protection. The Minister spoke about the issue of the age discrepancy, which needs to be dealt with, particularly from a safeguarding point of view. However, what happens with a complex child if we do not have a special care facility and we do not have the residential care that Deputy Kerrane is speaking about and which is underfunded? What happens in this day and age? As much as I want to see the end of SEAs, and it needs to happen as soon as possible and I ask for a date, I have a fear of what happens at present with one of those children to avoid them being placed in an SEA. Where do we put them if we do not have the appropriate residential care facility? I am very worried. I will also go back to that point that we are missing the early intervention piece that could avoid an awful lot of this nuclear action and we would not be failing children to the degree we are.

Sentiment score: -0.08