James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Child and Family Agency, Tusla, has a statutory duty under the Child Care Act 1991 to promote the welfare of children who are not receiving adequate care and protection and, if necessary, to receive a child into the care of the State. Data published in recent years indicate that the numbers of children entering care has been decreasing while the overall number has increased due to children staying longer in care.

As of 31 October 2015, there were 6,331 children in care nationally. This figure can be broken down by four different regions: Dublin mid-Leinster, with 1,511; Dublin north east, 1,519; the south of the country, 1,846; and the west, with 1,455.

Children who are received into care, depending on their identified need, may be placed in foster care either with relatives or general foster carers, residential care, special care or other placement types. The majority of these children are in stable placements, with over 92% of children in care in a foster family setting. Residential settings represent most of the remaining placements, usually between 5% and 8% of all children in care. At the end of October 2015, there were 343 children in a general residential care placement.

As the majority of children in care are in foster care family settings in the community, indicators of stability of the placement and participation in education are useful in monitoring the performance of Tusla in overall welfare. I am happy to say that Tusla has reported that the results for these indicators are positive and show that placement stability is very high and participation in education is on a par with the national participation rates. In addition, there are standards in place for foster and residential placements and there is a regime of regular monitoring and inspections.

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