Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the organisations here today, and Ms Rice in particular. Her contribution today was really powerful. I thank her.

I am familiar with the work of SAOL and EPIC, but it is great to have Kinship Care Ireland and FamiliBase here as well. I often think of the word "kinship"; we are all familiar with the phrase "next of kin" yet so few people out there actually understand what kinship means. We understand what it means informally but in terms of that phrase, obviously, it is reflected in the huge lack of resources and supports formally from the State. I see the very poor take-up of the guardianship payment. It is horrendous to think of the hoops people have to go through to prove there is parental abandonment in terms of the stigma. I was so struck by what Ms Rice said about that fear and concern about whether people will qualify or be deemed eligible or capable of looking after their grandchild.

I have a few questions on the data piece and understanding the formal and informal caring arrangements out there because the point was made that we do not have a good sense of it. How would we better understand the number of kinship carers out there? Is it a role for Tusla or is it for somebody else? It is not that data should be our primary focus here, but it is important in the context of understanding how we better support and make that powerful argument that it is happening on quite a significant scale. I do not know which organisation wants to respond to that, but that data collection piece is difficult so I would like to hear the witnesses' thoughts on how that could be done and who should be doing it.