Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The witnesses noted that foster carers do not have a link social worker. That suggests to me that there is a big gap. The foster carer and the child have the right to a social worker. Could the risk increase dramatically if the relationship between the carer and the child deteriorates in any way? If we do not have an accurate figure for how many of the 5,000 children in foster care arrangements are without a link social worker, there is a possible or potential risk of some of those relationships being in a state of disrepair. We might not know that.