Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I share the Cathaoirleach's welcoming of Ms Gibbons back to the committee.

I thank the Cathaoirleach and members of the committee for inviting me to discuss matters relating to foster care. I recognise and acknowledge the enormous work foster carers do in this country. They are at the core of the alternative care system in Ireland and they provide a safe and stable home for thousands of young people who may not have had the best start in life.

Since coming into this role, I have met many foster carers and their representatives and I am always struck by the quiet dedication and care with which they perform their role. We are leaders in Europe in that 89% of children in care here are provided care via foster carers, which is a very high figure compared with most European countries. That is something we should welcome and seek to protect.

I know from meeting with foster carers that some are experiencing financial pressures. This creates challenges for the care they provide to the children. It is a priority for me, therefore, to continue our efforts to improve the suite of supports foster carers can avail of. I know there was some disappointment with regard to budget 2023. Subsequent to the budget, I met the then chief executive of Tusla with whom I discussed the issue of payments for foster carers. Following this engagement, it was agreed that a single, additional once-off cost-of-living payment in respect of each child in foster care would be paid. This payment was made to foster carers in November of last year. This was to recognise the particular cost-of-living pressures that have applied over the last nine months but it was not to detract in any way from the overall goal, which I know many of the organisations in this area share, of increasing the rate of payment on a permanent basis.

I have met with a number of the organisations involved, including the Irish Foster Care Association, IFCA. I also attended and spoke at its AGM. I also met with the Movement 4 Change in Foster Care last November. In both of those meetings, the organisations set out a range of key issues and concerns they wanted to see being addressed. One of the issues that has come up is travel costs, which have been highlighted by foster carers as an increasingly significant financial outlay in respect of the care they provide to their foster children. This is particularly the case where a foster parent is fostering a child from a different county as significant travel may be involved in attending medical appointments and access visits to parents I have discussed this issue with Tusla, which agreed to provide an update to me on a proposed review of its policy in respect of travel costs for foster carers. That policy review from Tusla was submitted to my Department on 22 March. My officials and I are reviewing that and we will look to act on the recommendations stemming from that review.

Both the IFCA and the Movement 4 Change in Foster Care also raised with me the issue of access to the full State contributory pension.

I raised this with the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, in a bilateral meeting with her. This was particularly in the context of the recommendation of the pensions commission on long-term carers. We had a good discussion on that and officials are engaging further on this aspect. I will be speaking more to the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, to determine if we can see a way which will ensure foster carers can receive greater pensions protections.

I also welcome the publication by Tusla of its strategic plan for foster care services in Ireland late last year. I am conscious that this plan, along with the strategic plan for

residential care services for children and young people, will form part of Tusla’s overall alternative care strategy across the continuum of care. I also know that the final part of the three plans Tusla is bringing forward, that in respect of aftercare, is due for completion shortly.

Looking at the strategic plan for foster care, it is important to note Tusla is going to hire a national lead for fostering. This will elevate the position and significance of fostering within the national framework of Tusla and this is entirely appropriate considering the number of children who are in foster care and our shared goal of ensuring we can continue to grow the number of people involved. This will reflect the importance of foster care in the alternative care continuum and will facilitate a more national and strategic focus on foster care, based on the implementation of the recommendations of the plan.

Regarding private family arrangements, I acknowledge the letter I received from the committee in September last year on this topic, to which I subsequently replied. In that correspondence, the committee noted that the Office of the Ombudsman for Children published a report in August of last year that recommended the development of a policy on the rights of children in informal kinship care. The committee will be aware that a similar recommendation emanated from the UNCRC’s concluding observations in February of this year.

My Department is currently undertaking a scoping exercise to identify the key issues and information required to inform a policy specifically to address the needs of children and families in private care arrangements in Ireland. This work will involve close collaboration with Tusla and other State bodies and stakeholders, including Kinship Care Ireland, and this will be informed by the views and experiences of children in private care arrangements. This policy will seek to ensure that the rights of children in private care arrangements are upheld and appropriate supports are provided.

I again thank the committee for this opportunity to discuss these important issues, and I look forward to our engagement.