Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

By providing the once-off payments, I wanted there to be a recognition in this regard, not just someone saying it but a tangible recognition of at least one additional payment. As the Senator will be aware, we made once-off payments in several social welfare schemes as part of the budgetary package. That was something I was able to secure in working closely with Tusla. Similarly, changes to the travel costs and mileage are primarily within the gift of Tusla, but also influenced my Department as well. I asked Tusla to provide a review and it did so just last week. I did not have a chance to go through it in detail yet, but I will because this was an issue that was raised with almost as much significance as anything else by the representatives of some of the organisations. It is not the unfairness in this regard, but depending on the circumstances of children with a foster parent, they may or may not be doing a significant amount of travel. There is, then, an inconsistency in the outcomes of this process now. I think this is something we can address.

I had a good meeting with the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, regarding the discussion on the State pension. She has a strong desire in respect of recognising the benefits of care in this context and providing a mechanism to do so. The pension commission also wants to achieve this too. The reference was to carers generally, but I would love to see foster carers in there in black and white. This is what I am looking to achieve and it will be on this basis that I will be undertaking further engagement with the Minister, Deputy Humphreys.