Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her response. The goal of aftercare was to introduce a statutory duty on Tusla to prepare an aftercare plan for young people. I have been spokesperson for children and youth affairs for 12 months and in those 12 months, I cannot say that I have been convinced that it is being delivered. I have to hand last year's Empowering People in Care, EPIC, report, which spoke about how young people do not get access to aftercare. We do not even collate the data and do not have a proper system for understanding who is being identified as needing these social care workers. There are huge gaps and anomalies. While I appreciate that Tusla is doing its best to organise planning, there is no connectivity between social care workers. Some young people might only meet for the first time the social care worker who is writing their aftercare plan. This sort of engagement is leading to children ending up on council housing waiting lists straight after leaving residential care.

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