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Senior officials in the agency sounded alarm about ‘crisis’ in system for children in State care
Internal correspondence reveals how pressure to source accommodation led Tusla to disregard concerns about companies offering to run centres on its behalf. Illustration: Paul Scott’s senior management overruled internal concerns about a conflict of interest when handing a company a €2.5 million a year contract to house vulnerable children in State care, internal documents show.
During a scramble to source accommodation late last year for underage asylum seekers, the State care system was deemed to be in “crisis” due to the shortage of beds. This meant an increasing number of minors, who were arriving without guardians, had been left “wandering the streets” during the day, Tusla emails show.
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. One firm, Dunlicky View Residential, applied to manage a care home for 15 teenage asylum seekers in State care last year. Why am I being charged PRSI when I am on the State pension?
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. The assessment said a €2.65 million a year contract – later reduced to €2.5 million – was “significantly” higher than usual pricing limits and “did not demonstrate value for money”.
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 “unfair advantage” in winning lucrative contracts. Companies are required to declare possible conflicts and may be restricted from contracted work for a year.
Internal emails show several Dunlicky View staff were previously “long-serving employees” of Tusla, but the company insisted there were no conflicts of interest to report. The company’s owner and director, David Lehane , a Co Limerick-based businessman, did not wish to comment when contacted. Tusla senior management intervened to allow Dunlicky View open a 15-bed care home to help relieve pressure on the care system.
Lorna Kavanagh, interim director of Tusla’s 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 “completely unsustainable”, she told senior officials in an October 31st email. The lack of available beds in care homes was resulting in young people “wandering the streets” during the day, said Anthony O’Leary, Tusla’s head of quality and regulation.
However, O’Leary cautioned that a rush to approve companies for contracts could cause problems down the line.
“It is our judgment on possible conflict of interest that counts, not theirs,” he wrote in a December 12th email. Gerry Hone, the agency’s 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 “much higher”.
“Approval for Dunlicky Residential was recommended to reduce reliance on placing unaccompanied minors in emergency hotel accommodation,” a Tusla spokeswoman said. “The centre was approved to open on a temporary basis while the service provider approval process continued. ” Tusla had been dealing with “an unprecedented increase in demand” across all its services at the time, she added. Lehane has been involved in a number of businesses, including a venture building primary care centres for the HSE.
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