Ms Lara Hynes:

We are looking in the round at the different types of arrangements where children are not being for by their parents and what supports we would ideally have in place for those children and their parents. The point is there is a different range of those and they are not all the same and guardianship payments and guardianship arrangements in general would apply to some of those situations so we want to look at the entire variety of arrangements to figure out the best array of service provision that could be put in place to support those children and families.

The other issue Deputy Costello asked about was whether there should be a 12-month limit on voluntary care. We considered this and the reason we were loath to put in a hard cap was because the variety of different situations in which voluntary care might be utilised. We were conscious of a situation where, for example, mental health issues or serious health issues of a parent that meant a child was going into voluntary care for an extended period, but maybe not all of the time. We were conscious of providing flexibility for Tusla in a framework where it is viewing that arrangement as inherently temporary and to be phased out as soon as possible so the child can be reunified with their family. That was the consideration that lead to the lack of a hard cap regarding voluntary care.

That would have been the consideration that led to the lack of a hard cap in respect of voluntary care.