Average cost of residential placement for child with disability hits €571,000 per year

While the HSE outlined funding for 152 residential placements, including 80 earmarked for urgent cases, it did not set out a specific programme of additional places for children.

The average cost of a residential placement for a child with a disability is  €571,000 per year, according to new figures.

Meanwhile, just three commercial operators account for two-thirds of the private placements offered to children with disabilities.

Information released to Social Democrats TD Liam Quaide over a series of parliamentary questions shows that despite child disability placements having doubled over the past three years, there is no specific strategy in place for such placements going forward.

The Irish Examiner previously reported that over 80% of the 296 placements for children with disabilities as of July were with for-profit entities.

It can now be revealed that 246 of the placements were with private providers and 66% of these were with Talbot Group, Nua Healthcare, and Resilience Healthcare.

Asked how many additional residential places for children and adolescents with disabilities it expects to provide over the next two years, the HSE said there was "no defined quantum" of planned residential capacity specifically earmarked for children.

Mr Quaide, a former clinical psychologist with the HSE, said the answer highlights "the absence of any meaningful forward planning by the HSE for residential disability places for children, despite a rapidly expanding, highly privatised, and extremely expensive residential system".

While the HSE outlined funding for 152 residential placements, including 80 earmarked for urgent cases, it did not set out a specific programme of additional places for children.

Separately, the HSE was unable to provide a breakdown of how many children are currently awaiting placement or how long they have been waiting.

It said there were 54 active applications on its Disability Support Application Management Tool during the first three months of this year. 

However, those figures do not represent a chronological waiting list.

The figures show that the average cost of a new residential place for a child in 2025 was €571,000, rising to €573,000 over the first four months of 2026, while the most expensive individual placement delivered in 2025 was for €1.02m.

"The HSE has no defined plan for future child disability residential capacity," Mr Quaide said.

"Children’s residential disability care has become an extraordinarily expensive and fragmented system," he said.

Of the €571,000 average cost figure for placements, Mr Quaide said that “the Government has become heavily dependent on purchasing individual placements rather than building coherent, planned capacity around the needs of children and families”.

A HSE spokesperson said it "makes every effort to support children to continue living at home with their families".

"It is important to note that the admission of children into a residential disability service is often complex and arises from multiple interrelated factors on a planned basis," they said, adding that commercial providers are used "where public or voluntary sector capacity is not immediately available".