Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Tusla is doing a very significant piece of work on the whole area of alternative care. It is bringing forward three key documents, namely, the document on residential care that was published a couple of months ago, the foster care plan we talked about that has just been published, and a document on aftercare. These are the three core elements of alternative care. It might be useful to dedicate a sitting of the Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, once the third document has been published, to a discussion all three documents. There are real challenges for Tusla. The foster care plan is very important in respect of Tusla recognising there are challenges regarding its recruitment and retention of staff and its support of foster carers. I attended the Irish Foster Care Association, IFCA, conference two weeks ago and spoke about my determination to address a number of issues regarding the weekly rate foster carers are paid and other issues around mileage allowances, the availability of the back to school allowance and the like. It is those things that make it a little more difficult for each foster parent. It is about seeing how we can address those issues as quickly as possible.

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