Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

When the Deputy is Taoiseach, he can ask the questions. A total of 4,710 children are in foster care placements. We have seen a significant expansion of foster care placements in recent years.

Clearly, it is not simply a question of every case being referred to an individual social worker. One needs community-based family support services as a more effective means of dealing with these issues because these children are in this situation on an ongoing basis. An extra 333 social workers have been appointed since 2003, while 718 social workers are specifically working in this area for the 20,000 referrals coming through. These are the issues and this is the rate of resource being applied. A total of €1 million per day is applied to this area, quite apart from the salary costs of those excellent people who provide that service, so it is not a question of the Government being indifferent to the situation.

The Government has been pulling together all the service provision so that we get a more effective and efficient way of dealing with this problem. That is the issue. A significant amount of resources is being applied. I understand that the Ombudsman for Children has indicated that progress is being made in these areas. There are still specific problems which the Minister of State is taking up with the HSE as a matter of priority. He is taking up the issue of the out of hours service with the HSE tomorrow.

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