State spending millions on legal fees in child protection
Fianna Fáil claims the system of legal representation for children in child protection cases needs be urgently reformed.
The reports that people working as guardians-ad-litem are being paid up to €125 an hour.
It is reported that the Child and Family Agency TUSLA paid 30 million euro for guardian-ad-litem services in one year.
Fianna Fáil's spokesman on Children, Robert Troy says this is an example of public money being badly managed:
"It is the State that pays it - and one year alone in the last number of years, €30m was spent in legal fees - at a time when we don't sufficient social workers working on the coalface ... to prevent problems escalating to such an extent that they have to come to the courts
It's just not right and we need to refocus our energies and priorities to ensure that the money is being spent in the relevant areas."
