Camillus Glynn (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate and I welcome the publication of the national standards for foster care. It is interesting to note that, until the publication of this booklet, there were absolutely no proper standards for foster care. We have to say that this is a disgrace when one considers that foster care is a service that affects over 4,000 children. While we warmly congratulate the Ministers of State, Deputies Brian Lenihan and Mary Hanafin, for their role in bringing forward the rights of children in foster care and indeed the service providers – the foster parents – we have to say that it is never too late to do the right thing.

The ideal situation is that a child should be able to live in his or her own home in the care of loving parents. Nevertheless, it has to be admitted that, regrettably, this is often not the case. Whether it has to do with an alcohol or drug problem or just incompatibility within a marriage, very often the falls guys or fall girls are the children. That is very regrettable.

It is very important to ensure that children in that situation will get a second chance, as it were, and that is why foster parents play a pivotal role in the context of a providing an important service to these children.

I agree with Senator Henry and others who have more or less given the thumbs down to child care facilities in an institutional setting. That is the last option I would go choose. There are many sound reasons as to why one would adopt that particular thinking. When one considers that a child is the most vulnerable member of society, it is axiomatic that they should have the opportunity of benefiting from a situation corresponding to the most normal sense of everyday living that would pertain to other children in other settings. That is why foster parents have such a pivotal role to play in this area of child care.