Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

I do not have a lack of faith in the process. I am concerned with the more fundamental question. We are discussing foster children who have parents and the message we would send to those parents is that after three years their child can end up in the delegated responsibility of someone else. That is the danger I see in erring on the side taken by Deputy Ó Caoláin in specifying a period of three years.

At present, the position of a foster child is that intensive social work supervision continues to the age of 18 years. This legislation was produced as a result of the many children in long-term fostering arrangements where for all practical purposes the child is assimilated into a fostering family and yet the family has difficulty in such matters as obtaining a passport for the child. Other examples of difficulties are where the child is singled out with regard to school tours as the social worker must be contacted to write a letter granting permission and quick decisions cannot be made on medical matters as one must go to the social worker to obtain consent.

A balance must be struck. When a child is taken into care, the State assumes responsibility for the child. We do not need to discuss what happened in the past to realise the seriousness of the obligation it imposes on us as legislators to ensure a basic level of supervision takes place. I appreciate what Deputy Ó Caoláin said. It is a very difficult balance but I think we got it right in this Bill. I am satisfied from what I heard in both Houses that we should stick to the five-year period.

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