Dr. Valerie O'Brien:

In our presentation today, we said that it was linked to a change in demographics, the ongoing stress of living and the effects. With demographics we need good information systems in Tusla. It is paying people every month, so it has systems there. It has a national system to pay every month. Why is that data system not being used to profile who is fostering and what their ages are so we can predict? It is not rocket science in terms of the information systems - information systems with quantitative data - to profile our foster carers.

One of our recommendations is that exit interviews for every foster carer, either moving to private agencies or leaving, should be conducted, of course with the co-operation of the foster carers. I would recommend that this should be outsourced to IFCA. It is a body that is independent of the service provider. There should be an exit interview for anybody leaving foster care.

The elephant in the room, which is not being named today, is around the unintended consequences of regulatory requirements. We have gone full-blown in terms of regulatory. It is hard to argue against good regulation of children in care, child welfare systems and foster care systems, but some of the regulatory requirements are driving foster carers out the door. It is a private domain of family life, which is the great thing about it, but in terms of the regulatory requirements and the inspections, there are some nebulous rules, and that is not what we are not talking about here.