Dáil debates
Thursday, 14 December 2023
Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions
Children in Care
10:30 am
Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent)
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70. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will outline any new strategy development in his Department that deals with foster children and the challenges facing foster parents, particularly in relation to social security entitlements with respect to pension contributions (details supplied). [55037/23]
Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent)
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My question relates to any strategy development in the Department that deals with foster children and the challenges facing foster parents, especially with respect to social security entitlements and pension contributions.
Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The Deputy asked this question in the context of the Young Ireland: the National Policy Framework for Children and Young People strategy that was recently published. It was launched by my Department on 21 November this year. This new policy framework covers the period 2023 to 2028 and envisages an Ireland which fully respects the rights of children and young people. Young Ireland was informed by consultation with children, young people, professionals and parents, as well as recent data and evidence about the issues facing children and young people, including children in foster care.
The framework sets out key actions for Government across a range of issues affecting children and young people.
Three key actions in the national framework relate to alternative care, including foster care. These are: action 40, services for children and young people in care and aftercare; action 41, financial support for foster care; and action 42, innovation in care and aftercare. Action 41.3 relates to raising the basic rates of the foster care allowance. It was a priority of mine to secure a meaningful increase to the allowance in order to support the vital work being carried out by foster carers.
As outlined in budget 2024, there will be a €75 increase for children aged zero to 12 and a €73 increase in the €353 rate for children aged 12 and over. This increase will take place over two phases, a €25 increase from 1 January 2024 and the remaining increase to be paid from 1 November. These increases mean that foster carers will receive over €1,700 in additional funding per child over the course of 2024. This means that in 2025 foster carers will receive an additional €3,900 over the course of the full year.
The framework sets out an ambitious roadmap for actions for children, including those in foster care. I look forward to working constructively and effectively with Tusla and my colleagues, including the Minister for Social Protection, on the actions contained within the national framework, which will continue to improve the range of supports available for children in foster care and the foster carers who support them.
10:40 am
Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent)
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Deputy Canney and I, along with other members of the Regional Group, met representatives of foster families some weeks ago. There are very distinct challenges in the sector, not least access to pension entitlements. The Minister has had some engagement on this. It seems extraordinary that women who left the private sector workforce and took on foster care were not advised that they should have tried to regularise their stamps or were not given an opportunity to do so. We spoke to one foster lady who has arrived at 68 years of age and has now retired. She has no access to a contributory pension and a recognition for the 30 years of fostering she did. There does not seem to any pathway for her to access any kind of increased social security support. I do not think that is adequate. I understand there are 5,800 children in foster care at the moment. I ask the Minister to respond to a specific question. How much are we paying, on average, for children in residential foster care? I have been advised that we could be paying anywhere from €1,500 to €10,000 per week. Could the Minister respond to me on that?
Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Is the Deputy talking about residential care?
Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent)
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Yes, residential care.
Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I will come back to the Deputy with the exact figures. My recollection is that on an annual basis, we are looking at about €17,000 per year for foster care. The figure for residential care is over €100,000. This is without talking about the value for the child, but in terms of pure value for money foster care is of much more benefit to the State. It is, of course, for the vast majority of children far more beneficial. That is why I have taken significant actions to support foster care in terms of the change to the allowance, in particular. We have also engaged quite extensively with the Department of Social Protection on the pension issue. I will come back to the Deputy with the explicit figures on the difference in annual cost to the State for foster care versus residential care because it is a dramatic difference.
Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent)
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It is important to recognise the challenges faced by foster families. Despite the increases, which are very welcome, the Minister is well aware that when some foster families take on children with additional needs, they have to source services privately. Like any parent, when they look at a child, having been told it will take two, three or four years to get an National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, assessment and access occupational therapy, speech and language therapy or whatever else, they will decide to seek services privately.
There is, at times, an inherent bias in the State in the way we value the private sector. I do not like to call it the private sector, because these are not commercial arrangements. Foster caring is a vocation for those who take it on. In essence, I am not sure the State fully recognises their contribution. The Minister correctly pointed to the benefits of being part of a single family, with perhaps siblings, rather than being in a residential setting. That is not to disrespect that form of care, but there is a vast difference.
Early childcare is related to this. We do not value what the private sector envelope is providing in terms of supports that the State, as the Minister highlighted, would pay ten times more for. We need to change that aspect of how we deal with people. I refer in particular to pension entitlements, which need to be sorted out for these people.
Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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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.