Tusla says it's an offence to run an unregistered children’s home, but it places children in them anyways

The Child Care Act 1991 prohibits people from running unregistered children’s homes.

“A person shall not carry on a children's residential centre unless the centre is registered and the person is the registered proprietor thereof,” the law says.

“Any person who contravenes a provision of this section shall be guilty of an offence,” says Section 60 of the Act.

Tusla agrees: “It is an offence to carry on a children's residential centre without being registered,” it says in a note released with records this week, in response to a Freedom of Information Act.

The registration process is meant to ensure standards: that the homes are safe, and decent to live in, staff are properly trained and more. If necessary, Tusla uses the threat of de-registration to push companies to improve.

But Tusla, the Child and Family Agency (CFA), doesn’t have enough regulated placements for children who need them – so each year it places hundreds in unregistered facilities.

“The Child Care Act 1991 has made provisions for the CFA to make arrangements to provide accommodation to young people at immediate risk of homelessness or in need of care,” it says in the note.

These placements might be an apartment that a company – paid by Tusla – rents in a complex in Dublin, where two or three teenagers in care of the state live, and the company sends staff in to look after them.

In court last month, solicitor Gareth Noble said Tusla should be held responsible for putting vulnerable children in unregulated placements, according to the Irish Times.

“If you have a person guilty of a criminal offence for running such a centre, the question arises as to whether or not there is criminal liability attaching to [Tusla] in facilitating what could be a criminal offence,” he said.

So how does Tusla square the circle of agreeing it’s illegal to put children in illegal, unregistered placements, but doing it anyway?

Tusla says in the note that it can put children in unregistered placements temporarily.

And when these placements stretch out longer, if the companies Tusla is paying to run them don’t register them with Tusla, it can and does takes enforcement action against them, it says.

Enforcement

Tusla, acting on behalf of the Irish state places hundreds of children in unregistered placements that don’t meet the HIQA national standards for children’s homes.

Tusla is supposed to inspect and regulate privately run children’s homes, but these are not registered as children’s homes, so they are not fully inspected and don’t meet the national standards.

In November 2025, a Department of Children spokesperson, when asked to respond to the concern that unregistered children’s homes are illegal, said: “We cannot comment on the question of legality, since this would be the purview of the Courts, and the registration and regulation of childcare settings is a complex area.”

He referred to Section 36 of the Child Care Act 1991. Section 36 (d) allows for Tusla to accommodate children in any “suitable arrangements” it thinks is proper.

Last year, Tusla placed 789 children in unregistered children’s homes, which it calls special emergency arrangements, according to records released this week under the Freedom of Information Act.

The Tusla note, released with the enforcement records, confirms that it is an offence to run an unregistered children’s home – but also says Tusla can place children in them.

It can provide accommodation that doesn’t meet the standards while it assesses the children for a limited time period, it says. “These premises whilst not regulated operate within the terms of the legislation and supervised by the CFA.”

“These premises can operate for a limited time period, if thereafter the premises is deemed necessary for the ongoing care of young people it must then become registered as a children's residential centre pursuant to Part VIII of the Child Care Act 1991,” the note says.

“Providers who consent to providing services past the initial stage must register their centre, those who fail to do so may face initiation of enforcement,” it says.

A Tusla spokesperson previously said in November that after 30 days of operating at a fixed location, the operator needs to register the home.

Since 2022, Tusla has taken enforcement action against 11 companies for running unregistered children’s homes at 105 locations, according to records released under the Freedom of Information Act this week.

The children’s homes where it took enforcement action “were determined by the CFA regulatory authorities to be unauthorised and therefore operating contrary to the legislation”, according to a note Tusla released with the records,

Nine of the facilities were registered. Tusla closed down another 61.

But at the end of 2025, 32 children’s homes were still operating and still unregistered – funded by Tusla, with children placed in them by Tusla.

In those cases Tusla classed the outcome of the enforcement as 59 (a).

The Tusla note released with the enforcement records says that, “centres designated as Section 59(A) refers to centres who are providing residential care on a temporary basis on behalf of the Child & Family Agency, and as such are deemed by legislation as exempted from the requirement of registration”.

Section 59 (a) of the Child Care Act 1991 says that some facilities are exempt from the requirement to register, including “an institution managed by or on behalf of a Minister of the Government or a health board”.

Pól Ó Murchú, a solicitor with expertise in child protection cases, called on Tusla to clarify what it means when it lists section 59 (a) as an outcome of enforcement. “What is the legal basis for the designation?” he says.

Tusla didn’t respond to queries about this in time for publication.

“Shocking”

It is “shocking” that Tusla tried to bring 106 children’s homes up to scratch, but only nine of those made the cut and succeeded in registering, says Terry Dignan, a spokesperson for an umbrella body for charities that run children’s homes

If the state is relying on illegal, unregistered providers then “the residential care system has collapsed”, says Dignan, spokesperson for the Children's Residential and Aftercare Voluntary Association (CRAVA).

He called on the government to recognise that there is a major emergency in children’s residential care, and for the entire state apparatus to take urgent action to respond to the needs of children in the care of the Irish state.

Tusla cannot fix this emergency alone, says Dignan. All relevant government departments and state agencies, including HIQA, Tusla and the HSE, should meet and come up with a plan to fix the care system.

“The government has to say that this is an emergency,” says Dignan. “The whole state apparatus needs to take decisive action.”

The Irish state should invest in publicly run children’s homes instead of pouring money into private operators and spending vast legal fees on developing convoluted legal arguments, he said.