Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister indirectly refers to the strategic plan on foster care by Tusla. I welcome the fact a lead is to be appointed, if the person has not already been appointed. I also note that Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, is now setting up regional structures so that public representatives such as ourselves, instead of going directly to the CEO which we have done heretofore, can now engage with regional managers and the structures in place such as those within the HSE and CHOs. That is to be welcomed.

We are seeing more and more of the issue of foster care and the challenges faced by foster parents in presentations to our constituency offices. That is why I am exercised about this issue. I am pushing back a little on the travel allowances precisely for the reasons the Minister has just spoken about in regard to families that have additional needs and where there is the necessity to travel further for access to those services. In a county the size of Cork, a person could travel quite a distance to get access to services, as well as outside of the county. Therefore I ask the Minister to ensure that the allowances are such that they are not meagre or miserly and that they are linked or benchmarked against a standard mileage allowance such as the standard business rate or even the Civil Service rate. I ask the Minister to come back to us with more detail on what he is thinking about with regard to setting such a rate. That would certainly provide a good deal of confidence for people within the sector. It might act as - I will not say a financial incentive for people to become involved - a deciding factor if prospective foster carers knew that there is an allowance that would not see them out of pocket. That might make it more attractive for them.