According to Ireland's Child and Family Agency, Tusla, ten Irish children remained in care placements overseas as of late December 2015. All ten of the children were placed in facilities in Britain.
Tusla has been working to reduce its out-of-state placements during 2015. While the proportion of Irish children in care who are placed overseas is small, the costs of these overseas placements is considerable. The typical cost for maintaining such an overseas placement is around €6,000 per week. Tusla noted that in a small number of cases, a child requires highly specialised care or it is otherwise in the child's best interests to be placed outside of Ireland. The practice of overseas placements has been criticised in recent years, including by the Government-appointed special rapporteur on child law. Families of children placed overseas have noted "the difficulties of maintaining regular contact with their child when they are in another jurisdiction and concerns over their reintegration into Irish society on their eventual return."