Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate and acknowledge the passion. It is a serious issue and we will look into it. As the Deputy implied, it is not directly within the remit of my Department. The benefit of the national access plan, however, is that it involves other Departments on the implementation group. The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, the Department of Health, the Department of Social Welfare and the likes play a role in the oversight and implementation of the plan, as do stakeholders and people with lived experiences in terms of the priority groups. I am happy to send the Deputy a note on the matter.

When my officials and I met with EPIC on a number of occasions to discuss several of these issues relating to the emerging challenges that students who have experience of the care system encounter, we discussed 12 items, including the need for wrap-around supports, data collection, career guidance into higher education, specific focus on retention, streamlining of the SUSI supports, the need for more flexibility, therapeutic supports in some cases, role models to spread positivity around the system and the issue of trust being key in the context of the relationship with access officers. I accept that we have a big body of work to do here. Naming these young people as a priority group genuinely brings a focus and a reporting mechanism that has been lacking to date.

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