Ms Aine McGuirk:

I have a couple of points and I hope I am answering the questions posed by the Senator. Regarding his comments about the need to change and fix society in some way, his reference to the need for shelter and support as two basics that should be enshrined in legislation, and his comments concerning who will be able to foster if people cannot even put roofs over their own heads, and who our future foster carers are going to be in that context, one thing I know from practice is that I have met families who are kinship carers, we call them relative foster carers, and they are caring for one or two relatives, such as a niece, a nephew, etc., and doing a really good job. Then they lose their tenancy because the landlord wants them out, for no reason. It could be that the landlord needs the house back or whatever. These people have no priority in our local authorities and they are providing homes.

I remember one case where kinship carers were providing homes for two children, who were doing really well, plus their own children, and they were being put out on the street. I asked if the local authority could do something to get this family housed. The answer was " No". Being foster carers gave them no right above anybody else to have a roof over their heads. What are we doing to those children? We take them into care and then we let them be turfed out onto the street and maybe put into a hotel. In the case I referred to, that did not happen because another family stepped in and gave those children somewhere to live. They are doing fine, just to let everyone know it is all okay. I was, however, shocked when I came across that case. That was only one specific instance. Quite a few people providing kinship care to children are living in rented accommodation because of the housing crisis. They get moved around, as do the children.

Neither Tusla nor the local authorities seem to be able to do anything about this situation. There is no joined-up thinking in respect of how we deal with these children. Social workers on their own of course cannot magic up answers to all these problems. Regarding legislation to give people the right to care, I have also worked at the disability end of service provision and I understand exactly the Senator's anxieties from that perspective. It is absolutely chronic that the most vulnerable are the people who are being dumped on all the time. Every time things go down, they get dumped on. People lose services and virtually nothing is happening in that respect. Children in care, then, face this kind of double jeopardy, in that they might also have some kind of disability. I have seen children waiting for assessments for autism, for example. The least that could be done would be to rule out the possibility. They may be traumatised, but they are left wallowing in that situation while waiting for an assessment.

Children are only children for 18 years and that is not long. Their lives move in half terms once they hit school. Another half term is over every six weeks and then another term, another half-year and another year and children then move on into another class in school. I had to work in a school to realise that. When I realised it, however, I thought to myself that we need to move much faster for our children. Therefore, any legislation that can help things to move faster for children is, to my mind, an advantage to all of us, whether we are talking about the foster carer, the child, the social worker or anyone, any other professionals, trying to work in the system. I refer to getting some right to care and some recognition that the children who have to come into care are those who are the most vulnerable of all. They are a small number of children and, therefore, their voice is not huge.