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

I thank the Deputy. I think marches are great. Having said that, being a Minister I need to know what the issues are before they happen. We will have those engagements. In my initial answer I noted that Tusla informs me that there is a really deep assessment of the needs of the individual child or young person. While all of them are entitled to an aftercare plan, some of them will not necessarily need an aftercare worker given the stability of their background. Children may be staying with their foster carers etc. As such, it is not necessarily a bad thing if they do not have one. However, we need an aftercare plan.

I have a list of the number of available aftercare workers per county etc. If there is a geographic disparity in how young people's needs for aftercare workers are met, this absolutely must be looked at. I will ask Tusla to ensure that we examine that.

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