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

I appreciate that. First and foremost the allowance needs to be dealt with. What the Minister has said about his interaction with IFCA and Movement 4 Change in Fostercare is very positive. I have a list of issues I was going to bring up with him and he has dealt with some of them, including the pension. There have been issues with the contributory pension for foster carers and with child benefit.

The Minister also referred to, which I had failed to do, the vital role foster carers play for kids that come to them, especially under difficult sets of circumstances. Foster carers may have an onus on them to maintain that connection with the family, but sometimes this does involve multiple trips perhaps to two family members. There are added difficulties with that but we do not need expense to be another one, particularly given the added cost-of-living crisis and costs of fuel and so on.

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