Ms Fiona Kearney:

One of the greatest cures for everything is addressing poverty. It is about recognition of these arrangements. It is important to add two things relating to this and to other questions. First, we need to not formalise kinship care, but to recognise it. We have so many little children afraid to say what their arrangement is because there is so much fear: "Don't tell the schools that your auntie's moved into your mammy's house while your mammy's gone away." It is all secret: "Don't tell them that your nanny's going in and collecting your ma's payment." That creates an awful experience for children where their living arrangement is not recognised, is secret and wrong. Second, we need to remember that mammies and parents need a voice in kinship care. If a parent does not want the kinship care arrangement, they need to have a say. Some parents experienced trauma in their own family unit growing up. They may not want their child to be there. We need to listen to parents.