Sharon Keogan (Independent)
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On Tusla increasing the number of residential care spaces, I wonder why the Minister promotes that method of childcare. Fostering in a family home environment, whether it is by single parents or another type of fostering, is much better for any child than residential care where the children have social workers coming in to look after them 24-7. I do not want to see the Minister promoting that model. I want to see him promoting the fostering family model, if it is possible, whatever the family make-up might be. Having a child brought up in a family environment is much better than having a child brought up in residential care.

We have spoken about the mother and baby homes of yesteryear but what about today's mother and baby homes? Will the Minister provide the committee with details of these? Believe it or not, there are still mother and baby units in this country for young girls. What step-down facilities are available for those young girls and their babies? Who runs these homes? I am not sure whether they are run by Tusla or private operators but if the Minister will provide details on that, I would appreciate it. The Minister is looking quite confused now, but they do exist.

I want the Minister to be a fantastic champion for children. I am a foster parent. I know the trials and suffering experienced by the kids that come in my door. I want the Minister to champion them and I have not seen that being done yet. Working men and women were given an allowance of €250 under the stay and spend scheme. The students of Ireland were given €250. Why does the Minister not give the teenagers of this country a leisure or well-being voucher they could use for their health and well-being? We need to do something for the teenagers in this country, something individual and unique to them which they can use for health and well-being, going to the gym or whatever they choose. I have in mind some sort of leisure, recreational or well-being voucher that makes these kids feel valued and important in society. If we can help them at that age, problems may not manifest down the line.

Alcohol Action Ireland today stated that 200,000 children are affected by parental alcohol abuse, while 400,000 adult children live with its consequences. That means 12% of our population is affected by alcohol abuse. How will we address that? We need to address those issues.

I wish the Minister well. He has a huge body of work to do. The mother and baby issue is sensitive for everybody. At this time, if I am a victim of a mother and baby home, I cannot access my data. The Minister has created a database and I can get at it but I cannot get the testimony I gave to the commission at the time. Those are the facts and I want people to know that. Other parties, who have left the room, came out with fake news saying people could access their data but they cannot. They can access their name but not their own testimony given to the commission at the time. Thank God we have GDPR to protect those individuals' data and a European law that supersedes any law we have in this country.

I wish the Minister well and hope he does the right thing always by the children. The children of this nation are not just the children we have today but the children we did not serve as the State developed over the past 100 years. We have made many mistakes. Let us not continue to make them with residential care homes for our teenagers. Let us not continue to make them with our mother and baby homes. They are only small mother and baby homes. There could be only two or three mothers and babies in these homes. Let us learn from the mistakes and be the best society we can be for all our children.