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

When I met IFCA and Movement for Change in Foster Care we spoke about five broad areas where they felt the State needed to be doing more. These were allowances - which the Deputy has discussed already; travel expenses - which I am working on with Tusla; and additional concrete supports particularly in terms of therapies and we now have therapist groups available to foster carers from which they can draw because often children in care have a range of significant additional needs. We have also put a much greater focus on foster caring within Tusla so now, for the first time, there is a national lead on fostering in Tusla. I was always shocked we did not have that position before but we have it now. I do not know if the Deputy attended Bloom this year but Tusla had an amazing garden highlighting the work foster carers do so we are seeing a real focus across there. Pensions is the other issue. I have engaged with the Minister, Deputy Humphreys and have met her twice on this issue. We will continue to engage to see what can be done within the existing framework to provide some additional supports there.

See this speech in context