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

Foster carers play a vital role in the care of our most vulnerable children. The placement of a child in foster care is the preferred option for children who cannot live with their family of origin. It enables children in State care to live in a safe, secure, and stable home environment.

The Deputy may be aware that approximately 90% of children in care are cared for by foster carers, which compares extremely favourably with many other jurisdictions. We welcome this and we want to sustain this. We are, however, aware that this number had dropped to late 80% for a period, but it is back to around 90% now. We want to continue to grow that.

As the Deputy will be aware, foster carers are paid a weekly allowance, which is a payment to meet the needs of the child in their care. The foster care allowance is currently €325 per week for a child under 12 years of age and €352 per week for a child aged 12 and over. As the Deputy highlights, this payment has not been increased since 2009. I am already on record as saying that increasing the foster care allowance in budget 2024 is a priority for me. I want to be able to maintain children in foster care. I want to be able to demonstrate to foster carers that the work they do is so valued.

Over the past number of months I have engaged extensively with the Irish Foster Care Association, IFCA, and with Movement 4 Change in Fostercare, two of the organisations involved in the area. I attended the IFCA annual general meeting and I have met with the board. I have also met with Movement 4 Change in Fostercare.

We are also looking at other areas. Both organisations highlighted issues around travel expenses and inconsistencies, in particular the very high excesses of distance that must be travelled before any allowances can be made. Tusla has provided me with a paper on this issue and we are working on that now. In the context of the budget, I hope to be in a position to be able to address the issue of the allowance and other issues as well.

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