289. Deputy Josepha Madigan asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the annual expenditure and proportion of overall childcare budget spent on legal services, both internal and external, by an agency (details supplied), as well as legal aid for families; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25958/24]

Tusla has indicated there was a total spend of just over €35m on legal expenditure, including Guardian ad Litem and Third party legal costs. This represents 3.2% of Tusla’s total exchequer funding in 2023 (€1,100 million)

Tusla publishes a breakdown of its total legal costs each year in its Annual Financial Statements which are available on the Tusla website. Tusla’s Budget figures are available in Tusla’s Agency Statement, published in the annual Revised Estimates Volume (REV) by the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform.

The provision of legal aid for families falls under the remit of the Department of Justice, please see their contribution below.

The Legal Aid Board is the statutory body responsible for the provision of civil legal aid and advice to persons of modest means in accordance with the Civil Legal Aid Act 1995 and associated Regulations. The 1995 Act was amended by Section 54 of the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2011 which gave the Board the additional responsibility of providing a family mediation service.

Section 3(3) of the Act provides that the Board shall, subject to the provisions of the Act, be independent in the exercise of its functions. However, to be of assistance to the Deputy I have had enquiries made with the Legal Aid Board on foot of which the following information is provided.

Civil legal aid and advice is provided primarily through a network of law centres by solicitors employed by the Legal Aid Board. The Board delivers its services through directly employed solicitors in its network of law centres around the country and private solicitors from its private practitioner panels.

I am further informed by the Legal Aid Board that statistics in the format requested by the Deputy are not maintained by the organisation. The Board is funded by a grant-in-aid to provide legal aid in civil matters generally. Funding of €54,065,000 (inclusive of additional €1,005,000) million has been allocated to the Legal Aid Board for 2023. The Legal Aid Board however has noted that €833,272 was spent on non-pay expenditure in relation to the provision of legal aid and advice in childcare matters; including the use of barristers and use of private practitioners. It should be noted that this figure does not include all expenditure as salary costs and certain other expenditure associated with the operation of the childcare cases.