Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will focus my response on the NCS and the funding, where children are falling through the cracks. I have raised this with the Minister on a number of occasions and I acknowledge that he came out to meet people at the protest on Tuesday. However, I can give a few practical examples. There are several services, not just in my constituency but nationwide, which point out that siblings are in the old model and children coming into the system now are falling outside of that. The service, therefore, is trying to make up the difference. I understand the sponsorship situation, but in the vast majority of these cases people will not go to Tusla. In general, families do not want to bring that service on themselves, so they will not go down that road. If that is said to them, they will more than likely just pull their child out of the service. Services are stepping up and, through other funding streams and, basically, by robbing Peter to pay Paul, trying to keep those children in that system. They feel very guilty, even though they should not. However, they are saying to a family whom they might know for years, "Sorry, we cannot take you in". We really need something next week in that regard.

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