Ms Clare Murphy:

In special emergency arrangements , we have 167 children today. In special care, which is court-directed care that takes away the liberty of the child for its own sake, we have 12 children.

The Senator also asked about supports for foster carers. We have a new national foster care strategy, which talks about the various supports we are going to put in place, including mentoring, peer support and a national lead. The Senator mentioned sensory rooms in particular. We are always open to any proposal made by the social work department to us in management about something that would make life easier for the child. We do not always have the money to provide a sensory room but we do have systems whereby we can provide adaptations to houses.

Obviously, we liaise with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and our colleagues in the HSE. We really try to do everything we can because we know that the best place for a child to be once he or she cannot live at home is foster care, as opposed to residential care. We do our best but we are sometimes constrained by finance.