Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is the point. In fairness, I welcome what the Minister said. It is accepted that there has been a failure to deal with the issues being faced by foster parents. Deputy Gould and many other Deputies have, over many years, spoken about the Trojan work done by foster parents with kids who are sometimes coming from incredibly difficult situations. I welcome this once-off payment. We do need to look at the basic rates of payment, the problem in regard to waiting for six months on child benefit payments, foster parents not being able to get the back-to-school allowance and the issue with accessing the contributory State pension. In fairness, the Minister has gone through all the issues that had been brought to me by foster parents. I am glad he has said he is seeking meetings with representatives of the foster carers. I will talk to him about this aspect afterwards. There is also sometimes an issue around differential payments in the context of those paid by Tusla and those paid by third-party companies or agencies. These are several of the issues that need to be dealt with as soon as possible.

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