Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Coppinger for setting out the ways in which she has information on her concern that somehow children of homeless parents are entering into a route of care. This not my understanding of how children come into care or from a statutory perspective how they should come into care. I have listened to what Deputy Coppinger has said and I will certainly take it into account and bring it back to my Department and Tusla. Why do children come into care? It is for a wide range of reasons. Deputy Coppinger is identifying some additional ones which we need to investigate. I note what she is identifying there. Children come into care for a range of reasons, including the death of a parent, the serious long-term illness of a parent or the significant ongoing mental illness of a parent. However, homelessness is not a reason to take children into care. The State only intervenes in family life in exceptional cases. Homelessness as part of a family group is not, in and of itself, a basis for seeking to receive a child into care.

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