Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)

It is part of the legislation that the review of mother and baby homes would be done in September 2026. I appreciate what Deputy Kerrane says.

I again hear what she says in terms of the State pension for foster carers. There is a commitment in the programme for Government to look at that. It is a matter for the Department of Social Protection. It does not fall within my remit.

In terms of Building Blocks and €750,000 being the maximum in that regard, it has been raised time and again in terms of the costs and challenges. We will see what scope there is to address it in 2026. I cannot give the Deputy an absolute commitment at this stage but we will see. There are other issues as well in that regard, some of which the Deputy has flagged.

In terms of core funding, I want to see where the highest level of people are participating in the core funding model. The level we have is quite unprecedented. We always seek to capture the reasons people might choose to withdraw. We also have a new provider forum as well, which I gave a commitment to set up and it is now up and running. That is also a very useful mechanism as well to receive feedback.