Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----is terrible.

I move:

That Dáil Éireann shall consider the Report of the Joint Committee on Children and Youth Affairs entitled "Report on the Provision of Foster Care Services in Ireland", copies of which were laid before Dáil Éireann on 9th November, 2017.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle and Business Committee for the opportunity to present the report on foster care, which was published by the committee which I chair last year. Foster care is critically important in all aspects of children's welfare in this State. The Joint Committee on Children and Youth Affairs heard from many groups and organisations when discussing the issues surrounding foster care, particularly with regard to the rights and welfare of the children involved. I commend every member of the committee, particularly my predecessor, the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, as well as the work of Deputy Funchion, who was rapporteur for this report. It is appropriate to mention the contribution and role that she and the former Chairman played. As part of its report into the provision of foster care services in Ireland, the joint committee made 12 recommendations to Government. These recommendations work to ensure the needs of children always come first. As Members of this House, we have an obligation to ensure children in foster care receive the foremost levels of protection, and that is exactly what the Joint Committee on Children and Youth Affairs has sought to do in this report. The committee has recommended that comprehensive data be collated regarding the type of care settings children are placed in, and the circumstances surrounding their placement in care.

Tusla has stated that it is collating information on many aspects of children's placement in foster care and that the full implementation of the national child care information system will support reporting on children in care and the foster system. Ensuring we have all relevant information is vital to adequately address the issues leading to children entering our foster care system but also in making sure the necessary supports are in place to support these young people. I am pleased, with regard to the third recommendation in this report, that the Adoption (Amendment) Act 2017 commencement order has been made, as of last October. This Act is particularly important in allowing foster carers to adopt foster children who have been in their care for a period of greater than 18 months, or in a set of other prescribed circumstances, where the required conditions are met.

Most importantly, in certain cases that allows for greater stability to be provided to children in the foster care system. Recommendation 4 focuses on the extension of enforcement powers to the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, to allow it to implement recommendations made in its reports, while recommendation 5 relates to the need to establish transparent and robust governance and oversight procedures between Tusla and private foster care companies, along with the immediate use of service level agreements in that context. I note that Tusla stated that providing HIQA with enforcement powers would increase the administrative burden faced by the organisation rather than benefit front-line services. However, providing enforcement powers to HIQA would have significant benefits in ensuring children receive supports and care of the highest standard. If an administrative burden must be tackled as a result, the Government must tackle it separately.

The sixth recommendation of the committee’s report on foster care is that emergency out of hours services should be provided in all parts of the country and urgent action taken to close gaps in the service and ensure emergency out of hours services are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Our seventh recommendation addressed the issues of recruitment and retention of staff in Tusla. The report states that Tusla must continue to be creative in its approach on this matter. Working in conjunction with the HSE, it is vital that Tusla is adequately staffed and retains its current staff so that it does not lose the expertise which exists within the organisation. It would be counterproductive to have a scenario whereby staff working with children and young people in the foster care system are coming and going as that would detract from Tusla’s work and have an adverse impact on the delivery of front-line services.

It is essential that all foster carers are assigned a link social worker to support them and that a dedicated social worker is provided to all children in care. As of September 2017, 90% of foster carers had a link worker and 96% of children in care had a social worker. However, it is unacceptable for even one carer or child to be without that support.

A further recommendation of the committee is the co-location of gardaí and Tusla officials in specialist child protection units to counteract the gaps in the emergency out of hours services and aid inter-agency information sharing in the best interests of vulnerable young people.

It is important that recommendations made in the audit report on section 12 of the Childcare Act 1991 are implemented within an agreed timeframe. I note that as of December 2017 Tusla had developed and submitted an action plan in that regard to the Department. In addition, the implementation of the signs of safety approach must be monitored and reviewed on an ongoing basis in order to ensure it continues to be fit for purpose. One of the most important recommendations in the committee’s report relates to the need for measures to ensure vulnerable children are not returned to homes or circumstances from which they have been repeatedly been removed under section 12 of the Childcare Act 1991. It is shocking that such recommendation needs to be made in this day and age. Such situations cannot be tolerated and are contrary to the basic principles of child protection, common sense and decency.

While discussing the committee’s report and the implementation of these recommendations it is important to address the reality of our foster care system. A HIQA report yesterday identified serious issues with a private foster care service in Kildare. Four people had filled the head role of the organisation in a 14-month period. The company failed its inspection in five of the seven standards assessed and was deemed to be non-compliant. Some 15 placements with the foster care company ended in the past year, the majority in an unplanned manner. The assessments of foster carers carried out by the company were deemed by HIQA to be poor. The situation is nothing short of disgraceful. The committee raised questions in that regard in its report. However, it should not take revelations such as that to prompt action. The failure to address issues relating to private foster care companies must no longer be tolerated because it is a monthly reporting function from HIQA and has been a very regular occurrence since my appointment as Chairman of the committee last July.

It would be remiss not to acknowledge the scandal which occurred in Galway, where three girls were failed by the HSE and our health system between 2005 and 2007 and subjected to sexual assault while in foster care, care deemed appropriate for them by the HSE at the time. No Member of this House, or anyone else in our society, could in any way justify those failings. We must not continue to allow the State and our health and foster care systems to continue to fail some of the most vulnerable children and young people in our society. We must immediately address these issues.

I wish to thank my colleagues from all parties and none for their very considerable efforts in the production of the report. I acknowledge the co-operation of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, the Minister, Deputy Zappone, HIQA and Tusla and thank them for their contributions to the overall process. I also acknowledge the many organisations and voluntary bodies which made very valuable contributions to the Houses of the Oireachtas by taking the time to make submissions or appear before the committee.

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