Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I suppose I am trying to get an understanding of the standardisation. What are we doing to ensure we do not have a two-tier system? We have increased the number of private operators by 39 this year and 12% of the current foster care offerings are private. The difficulty for many foster carers is the fact that the allowance is meant to belong to the child, which is not disputed, and foster carers are unpaid volunteers. Mr. Brophy said earlier that the role of Tusla is to advocate on behalf of a child's rights. Why do we have more money being allocated to the private sector and not Tusla operators?