Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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I look forward to the Minister being as positive in response to my query as she was to the previous one.

I thank her for taking time out of a long and busy day to be here so late to deal with this issue. I will start by introducing her to a woman I know. Her name is Kirsty. She has been a foster parent for more than 13 years. She, and her then partner, started fostering, and they were a regular family, with employment and a home. As with many people, however, life intervened and Kirsty is now a single parent. In those 13 years, she has fostered more than ten children. Her eldest, who is 15-years old this year, has been with her since the child was a young baby. Kirsty has, however, also fostered children for shorter periods, emergency stays and mid-length stays. In doing that, she has made an enormous contribution to the lives of children who, for a variety of reasons, may not have had the opportunities to succeed in and flourish in life as they now do. She has also made an enormous contribution to the State because otherwise those children would have ended up in State care at a much greater cost to the taxpayers. The nature of some of our State care facilities also means that experience would have been at a much greater cost to the children themselves.

By all accounts, Kirsty is an exceptional mother, absolutely dedicated to the children she loves, rears and cares for. The problem, however, is that she is a single parent. From what I can see, she is in the only category of single parents not eligible under the existing legislation for either the one-parent family payment, OFP, or transitional jobseeker's allowance. That creates an enormous anomaly. A payment does come from Tusla to cover the specific costs of the child. It is a non-means tested payment, paid to all foster parents regardless of income.

Kirsty now finds herself out of work, however. Tusla wants her to continue to foster children, and during the Covid-19 pandemic, it even wanted her to take on additional fostering responsibilities because the organisation was trying to alleviate some of the pressure in care homes. At the same time, though, officials in the Department of Social Protection are doing their job. Kirsty is eligible for a jobseeker's payment and, therefore, the officials want her to apply for employment, engage with Seetec and do a range of things not compatible with a single parent to do under that payment.

I know what the official response of the Department will be because the Minister's predecessor gave it to me in 2018. I also received the same word-for-word reply from her and her officials in September. When the legislation was originally drafted, it included a list of categories of single-person households eligible for one-parent family and transitional jobseeker's payments. Foster parents were not included. I suspect that was because when that legislation was being drafted there was just a general assumption that foster parents were two-parent households. It was, therefore, an omission or an oversight in that original legislation. I cannot imagine any real reason foster parents would be treated differently from widows, widowers, guardians, etc.

We can do two things now. The Minister can read the same response I received twice previously, and the small number of people I suspect are in the same position as Kirsty will be stuck in this bind. Their choices are to return these children to care, which is not something anybody in this House would support, or to go without means. That is the position in which the State is putting Kirsty. I am not asking the Minister to change the law in this Topical Issue debate. I am not even asking her to commit to changing the law. I am just stating there is a compelling reason for the Minister, instead of giving us the stock response, to ask her officials to review this situation to see if there are legitimate grounds for considering legislative reform, perhaps in a future social welfare Bill or similar legislation.

We just had a valuable discussion regarding the Tidy Towns competition and the volunteers who do enormous work for their communities. My mother and father were foster parents. My youngest sister had been with us since she was two. She is now a schoolteacher in Africa, has her own family and is incredibly successful in her own way. I know from first-hand experience, therefore, the transformational impact of fostering. Let us not continue to discriminate against single-parent foster parent households. Let us find a way to fix this issue.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this matter and for the opportunity to outline the current arrangements in place regarding foster parents and the one-parent family payment. It is important to recognise the significant contribution that foster parents make. I know foster parents myself and the Deputy is correct that they carry out a valuable role. He has shared Kirsty's story with us, and I am sure there are more people like her out there. Many of them are probably not one-parent families, however, and that is fair enough.

I have a prepared answer and the Deputy can read it at his leisure. The main point is that Tusla provides supports to foster parents. Those payments are made directly to the foster parents, and the social welfare system seeks to provide supports more generally. As the Deputy will be aware, social welfare legislation provides for the payment of an increase for a qualified child on certain primary social welfare payments. It is possible, therefore, for foster parents to get the one-parent family payment if they have children of their own, but they will not get the payment if they only have foster children.

We are probably not talking about a great number of people in that situation but the foster care allowance is currently €325 per week for children under the age of 12 and €350 per week for children over 12. This compares with a one-parent family payment for children aged under seven of €239 per week, and a weekly jobseeker's transition payment of €239 in the case of a child under 12 or €243 in the case of a child over 12. There is an enhanced payment in the respect. Where a child has been placed in foster care by Tusla, and the child has been in continuous care of the foster parents for six months, child benefit would then transfer to the foster parent. Tusla also provides a range of other supports to foster parents to help and support them in the invaluable work they do.

The Deputy asked whether I will consider it and ask my officials to review it, which I will do. I think that is a fair request and I am happy to get them to reconsider the issue. I am happy to engage with him on it.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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This is an issue where, with a bit of common sense and goodwill, we can make a difference to people's lives. Someone like Kirsty today can legitimately claim jobseeker's allowance because she has no full-time employment. She is in receipt of jobseeker's allowance and the State pays that in recognition of the fact that she has no means. The foster care allowance is not a payment to provide an income support to the parent; it is to provide for the costs of fostering the child in recognition of the work that has to be done.

Rather than forcing people like Kirsty to claim jobseeker's allowance and to have to be in potential conflict with their Intreo worker or Seetec adviser, we should acknowledge that there are a small number of single-parent households who are foster parents, and in the same way as any other household that is a single-parent family, allow them to access the one-parent family payment or, crucially, a transitional jobseeker's allowance. Kirsty would love to work part time if she could get it, but the work has to fit around her caring responsibilities for her nine-year-old and her 15-year-old foster child. Transitional jobseeker's allowance, therefore, is eminently more sensible. This is not about the State saying these people are not deserving of an income support. They are already getting jobseeker's allowance, but that income support does not suit their specific needs as foster parents.

I welcome the Minister's commitment to considering the issue. If she takes it in the spirit I propose, this is simply about allowing people to do what they do very well, without being in conflict with one or other section of our social welfare, or care, system.

My understanding is there is a severe need for more foster parents. There may be people who, because of circumstances, could take up that role on a short, medium or long-term basis. This could also assist Tusla and another arm of Government to ensure that some of the most vulnerable children in society will get the start in life they so much deserve. I look forward to engaging with the Minister on this into the future.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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It is fair to say that in the case of foster care arrangements, the legal responsibility for the child remains with Tusla, although I reiterate I am happy to engage with the Deputy on this matter. It is important that we encourage as many people as we can to foster children because they provide a great service to the State. While Tusla supports them financially, I do not see any reason we cannot examine this, and I am happy to work with the Deputy in that regard.