Mr. Fred McBride:

I will elaborate on some points made by Gordon Jeyes. With reference to the question about aftercare, we have approximately 1,600 care leavers per year. At the end of July, I was made aware of only four who had ended up in hostel accommodation directly after their care placement. There were explanations for all four of them. The four had ended up there as a result of a crisis. Their placement had temporarily broken down and they had ended up there through our out-of-hours service or crisis intervention service. They were very quickly removed from that hostel accommodation either back into their placement or into an appropriate aftercare placement.

I am aware of some information being bandied around by Focus Ireland and others as to there being large numbers in that category. I have yet to see that substantiated. When I looked into some of that information, it transpired that some of those young people were well into their 20s, so they were not leaving care. They might have been termed "care leavers" but they had been away from care for a number of years and thereafter ended up in homeless accommodation. It is regrettable, but these people were not directly leaving care at 18 years of age. That point should be made.