Ms Karen Feeney:

It is a bit of a mix. There is a certain number of young people for whom the foster care works well. They progress to third level education and often can have extended placements with the original foster family. With others, things break down around the age of 18. We can often get urgent referrals at that stage. Sometimes when they break down, the young person needs fairly practical support. There are others in whose story of origin, for want of a better word, there has been such extreme neglect and loss. At the end of the day, poverty is the biggest demon. It will always drive the most complex problems.