Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the delegates for their presentations. I want to follow up on some of the points made by Ms Bond from the Irish Foster Care Association. We all support her view that there is a need for more social workers. She has made the point that 6% of children in general placements and 8% of children in relative care do not have a dedicated social worker. I want to follow up on that point and another she made about it being critical to have robust infrastructure in place to support families and ensure knowledge is disseminated among Tusla's staff. In dealing with crises will she give us a picture of what happens, say, at a weekend when one of the major issues is that there is not an appropriate out-of-hours service available? I understand that while there is a telephone line service available to access a social worker, the social worker on-call is not part of the local team who might know the circumstances of the family involved. Could either or both groups give us a picture, from their experience, of the shortcomings in the service and why it is so important to allocate social workers to all children and to have an out-of-hours service available? A report published this morning by the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, ISPCC, highlights the fact that 75% of the calls made to Childline are not made between the office hours of nine-to-five but at other times, including weekends or in the evening. I want to get an understanding of what it is like for the families and children who find themselves in these circumstances.

I also want to follow up on the points made about after-care plans mentioned by both groups. I can only imagine what it must be like for a young person who has already had a traumatic life having to leave a home on reaching the age of 18 years. Ms Bond suggested that, in some cases, a carer's allowance or funding to assist in the provision of accommodation attached to a home might be provided.