Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I agree with the Deputy on the importance of recognition and agree that that recognition can take many forms and that different foster carers prioritise different elements of it according to their particular situation. For some it may be the immediate payment; for some it may be the issue of pensions in the longer term; for some it may be the institutional supports Tusla provides; and for some it is the very practical supports in respect of the services, which I will talk about a little more.

The Deputy is absolutely right on the wider unmet need we have in respect of the provision of children's disability services. It probably has a disproportionate impact because, as we have recognised before, the cohort of children in care may have a disproportionate range of needs. That is why the progressing disability services, PDS, roadmap on which the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and I are working with the HSE is particular important. The retention and recruitment issue the Deputy has just spoken about in respect of social workers is equally important in respect of therapists. We have seen a drain of therapists leaving children's specialist disability services and going towards primary care or into private practice or leaving the country. That is why the roadmap is so important. It is also important in the context of the very damaged relationship between Tusla and parents in many parts of the country right now. That is an ongoing piece of work on which the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and I are focusing.

The therapeutic services for children in the fostering system are being developed as part of Tusla's practice reform agenda within the corporate plan. Tusla has prioritised the development of internal therapeutic services to enable timely assessment and to strengthen care planning for children. On foot of that, regional therapy managers are now in place in every region and are beginning to co-ordinate the provision of therapy across internal provision and external provision in the statutory, community and voluntary and private sectors. It is, however, also important to say that new therapists are now being hired by Tusla in six learning sites around the country, with a view to multidisciplinary inputs into care planning for children on admission to care. That will begin at the end of quarter 2 of this year.

Finally, as part of the overall model of care, Tusla is in the process of strengthening governance and oversight of commissioned private therapeutic services. That will be in place by the end of quarter 3. It is a matter of not only better monitoring of the services Tusla brings in but also the provision of some internal therapists, which, obviously, is of particular benefit to children within the care system.

The Deputy is absolutely right on the numbers of allocated social workers because the number allocated to foster carers is lower. That is part of the wider pressure in respect of therapists. We have pressure in respect of foster carers. As Deputy Costello will know, we now offer a place immediately to every young person graduating from a foster care course at a university in Ireland. My Department has engaged with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and across a range of third-level institutions to try to identify the driving factors in encouraging more young people to fill in the CAO for foster carers and to get people in other parts of life as well. We recognise that people often come to social work as mature students. It is a matter of supporting that work choice as well.