Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

It is a mandatory obligation to provide after care where need has been established for such care on foot of an assessment. In addition, the HSE is under a duty to form a view in respect of each person leaving care as to whether there is a need for assistance and this also constitutes an obligation. The advice is that the request to change "may" to "shall" should not be acceded to, as it is well known that the word "may" in statute often is interpreted as imposing a mandatory obligation.

In order to ensure there was no doubt about the matter and to emphasise the importance of after care services, I issued a policy directive to the HSE in June 2010 clarifying the issue and directing the HSE to formulate and implement after care policies and as Deputy Ó Caoláin has pointed out, that work is ongoing. In addition, following the publication of the Ryan report, the Government published an implementation plan in July 2009, which included a commitment to the provision of after care services. Additional funding of €1 million was provided in 2010 by the HSE to support the provision of after care services and this continues to be available to the HSE this year. I believe that with these initiatives and protocols and a correct legal understanding of the Child Care Act, together with the funding to provide additional staff and better services, we will have better outcomes. It is due to the determination of Deputies and NGOs who have pressed this issue strongly that this is the case. This is a significant reform and constitutes a significant advance on the position as it stood before 2009. I should point out that the Ombudsman for Children's office made a representation in this regard. The recommendation did not have regard to "need", as Deputy Ó Caoláin read it out. It simply was to be provided whether the need arose or otherwise.

I attended the Irish Foster Care Association's conference in Westport last November and one is struck by how foster care is an extremely fulfilling experience for children in the vast majority of cases. Consequently, after care is not always needed in such circumstances. While Members set out in their amendments what is proposed to be done, as I have stated, the current legal position is that it is a mandatory obligation on the HSE to provide after care where the need is identified and this is exactly on all fours with the policy intention behind all these amendments. In response to Deputy Ó Caoláin, I do not suggest that only a small minority need after care but that of the cohorts of children in care, only a small minority of the overall number of children in care are leaving care. While many of them are very small children, only a small number are 17 and are in the process of leaving care. I made this point to emphasise this should not be a huge expense on the HSE because one is dealing with 5,800 children in care at present, of whom only approximately 200 leave care each year. Therefore, it should be possible to establish a world-class after care service in Ireland. The Government is working towards this through additional funding, a clear understanding and the establishment of protocols with the various NGOs.

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