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

I disagree with the Deputy. The State very much values the work that is being done in terms of foster care families across the country and the importance of supporting that. I have worked to support that in terms of the significant increase in the allowance I outlined earlier.

I met Movement for Change in Foster Care and the Irish Foster Care Association, IFCA, in the past number of months. The issue of the pension is important. In the national framework I referred to earlier, Young Ireland, action 41.2 commits the Department of Social Protection to consider the credits available to foster carers for periods of time spent caring, with a view to supporting eligibility for the State pension, and also refers to including foster carers in the proposed changes to the attributable contributions of long-term care when caring for an incapacitated dependent. When we met the IFCA and Movement for Change in Foster Care, we discussed some of the lack of clarity for foster parents in terms of what is available right now and how they can align their contributions with existing contributions. We are working with social protection, initially at least, to provide greater clarity and better information on what steps a foster carer can take to resolve potential gaps in pensions.

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