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

The Deputy made a number of points there. Of course we want to protect foster care and foster carers and recognise the vital work they do. A full 90% of children in care in Ireland are in foster care and it still compares very favourably internationally. The first step we are taking is a double payment of the foster care payment. That will be paid on 8 December in recognition of the immediate cost-of-living pressures. Last year I made a commitment to bring about a substantial increase in the base rate of the foster care payment and through budget 2024, I have achieved that. It is happening in two steps. There will be a €25 increase on 1 January and a further increase of €50 on 1 November. I know that some foster carers have expressed disappointment that it is divided up like that but we only had a certain amount of money to achieve this in 2024 and my core goal was that we would have a substantial increase in the rate by the end of the year because that is then built into the base for the following year. That is how we were able to achieve it. There is an immediate recognition from 1 January 2024 by way of a €25 increase and following on from that a €50 increase from 1 November.

In 2024, a foster carer family with one foster child will be €1,700 better off but in 2025 and successive years, the family will be €3,900 better off. That is a significant and much-needed increase which recognises that for so long we did not increase that particular payment. That is part of the wider response to the needs of foster carers that is set out in Tusla's foster care strategy. Tusla has three strategies under its broad alternative care heading covering foster care, residential care and aftercare, with a particular focus on the foster care strategy, including an increase in the foster care allowance and changes within Tusla itself. I am really pleased to see that Tusla has now appointed a national lead for fostering. I was surprised, considering how important fostering is, that there was not such a position previously. There is such a position now and that is something I recognise is an important step. We are also seeing better supports for fostering families being put in place, including therapeutic supports. We are seeing a roll-out of therapeutic supports, via Tusla, dedicated towards children in foster care in recognition of the higher level of complexity among that particular group, about which the Deputy just spoke.

On residential care, we have provided Tusla with its largest one-year increase in funding ever in 2024. A significant part of that will be directed at developing new residential care in Tusla's own capacity, rather than relying on the private sector. My understanding is that nine new residential houses will be delivered by Tusla in 2024 as part of the use of the aforementioned additional funding. Now that both Tusla and the HSE sit under my Department, we will be looking for a much better integration of those really complex cases involving children in care who also have very significant disability needs. There is a protocol in place covering how the two agencies interact and there is funding behind that. We all recognise that the implementation previously was not what it should have been but now that both organisations fall within my Department, we will be ensuring that the protocol is fully and properly implemented.

Finally, the Deputy is absolutely right that recruitment and retention within the CDNTs is the biggest challenge we face and I am sure the Minister of State will elaborate on that. When we took over the disability area from March of this year, we recognised that this was our biggest challenge and our number one priority. We have published the roadmap for improving progressing disability services, PDS, and recruitment and retention is central to that. It is about opening up new CAO places for therapists and bringing in new therapist grades. That is something that the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, has led out on. It is also about bringing in new Masters courses, where people can convert an existing science degree, for example, into a therapist qualification within a two-year period. We are looking to fund that as well because it is central to the PDS roadmap.