Concern has also been expressed at revelations the State is paying over €100,000 per child in foster care per year, yet just €15,000 of that is paid to the foster families.

Figures obtained by the Irish Examiner from Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, show that the most troubled children in the care of the State require enormous levels of support at huge cost.

The chairman of the Oireachtas committee on children’s affairs, Fine Gael TD Jim Daly, has called on Minister for Children Katherine Zappone and Tusla to explain why so much is being spent.

Tusla documents show the most costly cases are in special care. The spend on these services in 2016 was €11.6m. The average number of children in special care last year was 11.62.

Minister for Children Katherine Zappone

According to Tusla, young people referred to special care services are between 11 and 17, are very vulnerable, sometimes very challenging, with complex psychological and sociological profiles, and have high numbers of previous placements which have frequently broken down.

Mr Daly described the figures as extraordinary and committed to further investigating the matter.

“It is very difficult to comprehend expenditure of over €20,000 per week or €1m each and every year on these 11 children,” he said. “I certainly will be asking Tusla for further clarification on these figures to see what value for money the State gets for this.”

The figures also show the average number of children in care in 2016 was 6,353 — resulting in an average cost per child of approximately €100,000.

However, Mr Daly expressed grave concern that just €15,000 of that €100,000 is paid to the foster families.

“Foster carers receive €15,000 per year for providing 24-hour care for the child 365 days of the year,” he said. “What is the other €85,000 per child being spent on?”

Fine Gael TD Jim Daly

The most recent figures provided by Tusla indicate there were 6,309 children in care at the end of February 2017, which is a decrease of 2% compared with the previous year.

More than 5,000 children who have been brought to the attention of child welfare and protection services have still not been allocated a social worker.

Almost 850 children who are considered “high priority” welfare and protection cases by social services have not been allocated a social worker.

Mr Daly said he remains deeply concerned about the ongoing litany of reports published recently by Hiqa which raise significant concerns about the standards of care being provided to our most vulnerable children.

“While the horrors of the recent Grace case are hopefully confined to our past, I believe many of the system failures of that time are still existent today in the foster care system,” he said.