This morning, we hear of another scandal involving the care of vulnerable children in this State. Forged references were provided for staff at special emergency accommodation for children, putting vulnerable children in harm's way. These settings, as the Taoiseach knows, are unregulated, poorly resourced and unregistered facilities not inspected by the authorities, yet more than 1,000 children were placed in these settings last year. The State pays out literally millions to private operators to run them, all because of a severe shortage of foster carers and regulated care home placements - a shortage, by the way, that the Taoiseach's Government allowed to develop. What is the Taoiseach's response to this scandal and how will he ensure accountability for this, which is just the latest in a long line of such scandals?

As I said earlier to Deputy Bacik, who raised this issue on Leaders' Questions, we are extremely concerned about this issue of forged letters, which is completely unacceptable and very serious for the care of young people who are taken into care. The numbers referred to Tusla have expanded to an extraordinary degree, which reflects wider issues within society of different kinds. We have substantially increased the current and capital funding, doubling capital funding and so forth. The recruitment of qualified staff is key. A lot of work has happened in that area in terms of investment in additional grades, improvements and so on, and we are going to have to do more on that front. I would pay tribute to a lot of Tusla staff out there who do an awful lot of good work looking after a lot of people who need that care and assistance.