Mr. Pat Smyth:

I will take this question. The cost of a placement through a private foster care provider is about €1,000 a week. As Ms Duggan pointed out, the basic rate of funding in respect of the foster care allowance is between €325 and €352. On the costings we have done, there is a comparative cost when we add in the cost of staff. We must compare it in terms of the private organisations providing staff in the areas of social care, legal services, etc. We are looking at an approximate comparative cost of about €800 vis-à-visthe agency cost that we are paying of about €1,000. Therefore, there is a mark-up of about €200 in that regard.