Carlow Kilkenny TD Kathleen Funchion is expressing concern at Tusla’s latest overspend.
Tusla spent over €15.2 million on legal fees in the first six months of this year.
That’s almost €800,000 more than expected, according to a new report by the Child and Family Agency.
In total, Tusla overspent its budget by €8.5 million in the first half of the year – largely due to residential and foster care costs.
Deputy Funchion, Sinn Féin’s spokesperson for children, says the legal fees are far too high;
“A lot of people do feel that they get to a stage with Tusla where they do need a solicitor or some sort of legal help to progress their case. That’s very worrying because social workers should be able to deal directly with people and obviously there should be a process there in place, maybe if there’s a difficulty between a social worker and a family, that it can be escalated within Tusla without having to go down the legal road.”
