Ms Kate Duggan:

We engaged most recently with HIQA, the Children's Rights Alliance and NGO agencies, as well as our line Department from a policy perspective, to come together over the coming weeks and look at the tiered model of support. The onus is on us to provide an appropriate care placement, but almost 50% of males over 16 years of age who present to us do not want to go into what we consider a mainstream residential service under the care system. They want a different level of support where they can access education, training and employment and have a safe place to live.

We are working hard with colleagues and all the stakeholders I mentioned to identify the various tiered levels of support that are needed. On any one night, we could have up to 100 special emergency arrangements where unaccompanied minors are accommodated in Airbnb-style arrangements with an end key worker from Tusla. A lot of them are young people whose assessment is disputed or unfinished and where a determination for eligibility of services has not been made, so we do not place them in a residential unit or a foster care service with other young people but, equally, we do not refer them back to the IPO, where they would be placed in international protection. They are placed in those arrangements until we have a determination on eligibility. Nevertheless, it goes back to the numbers we are dealing with. There is a level of subjectivity and we are aware of that, so we are working hard to mitigate the risk of any child being placed in adult service provision.