Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The public hue and cry which followed this case was right and proper in a democracy. However, there is often an overreaction to a particular scandal. I am asked to guarantee that something similar will not happen in Ireland. I cannot guarantee this because we cannot observe every moment of every hour of every day of every child's life. We must ensure people are aware of their obligations. We have a robust set of guidelines, Children First, which have stood the test of time as they have been in place for ten years.

The guidelines were reviewed thoroughly over the past two or three years and in July I published a report on them which concluded fairly that gaps did exist. Certain professionals are not aware of their obligations. The one key point about Children First is that if a person is concerned about children, he or she should report it to the Health Service Executive. It is as simple as that. However, teachers and others who come across incidents do not report them or are not aware that they are to do so in this fashion. I am doing my level best to ensure people are aware of the guidelines and I will re-publish Children First in the coming months.

I am delighted to be in a position to speak about foster care in Ireland. This is a service provision that we do not hear much about on a day-to-day basis. Foster care services do not make headlines in the media like other health and social service provisions. However, on any given day foster carers and relative carers are caring for 4,776 children. This represents 89% of the children placed in the care of the HSE. Although this figure is significant, I am of the view that not enough recognition or credit is given to all those people who are key players in this service and this has been annunciated by a number of speakers.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child sets out the principle that in all actions concerning children, the best interests of the child will be the primary consideration. The convention also states that a child should not be separated from his or her parents unless the state is of the view that it is in the child's best interests to do so.

A 2000 publication on foster care states: "Foster care has been subject to a range of influences in its development but it can be seen as one of the early expressions of this recognition of the rights of the child." Families and family life are very important to all children and the opportunity to experience the qualities of family life is one of the main objectives of the National Children's Strategy. The UK Children Act 1908 introduced fostering on a statutory basis for the first time. It has been around for 100 years, which is a considerable length of time.

We are all aware that unfortunately there are times in some children's lives when it is not in their best interests to remain at home. The environment can often be chaotic and harmful and no one is best served by allowing children to remain in situations where they are in some way at risk. Foster care provides the best way for these children to experience family life. It does this by offering care in a family setting in the community either on a short or long-term basis. It allows for many children to form good relationships with committed foster carers and their families.

Another important factor in foster care is that it allows for and actively encourages the inclusion of the child's family during his or her care, where appropriate. In fact, the main aim of staff and foster carers alike is to work towards returning the child to his or her family. We all understand that this is not always a possibility. However, it is important for the services and all those working in them to continually review the situation of the child and his or her parents and to examine whether it is in the child's best interest to return home.

In view of the successful outcomes for children, it is not surprising that foster care and relative care represent the dominant placement options in Ireland. This importance is signified within our legislative and regulatory framework. The Child Care Act sets out specific provisions and regulations for foster care.

To develop and enhance the services, the report of the working group on foster care was published in 2001 and makes a wide range of recommendations to Government. Many of these recommendations have been implemented. The report recommends that discretionary payments made to foster carers be abolished and that the allowances be increased. They have been increased to €325 and €352 for 2009. This increase, small I admit, recognises the importance of fostering and the work undertaken by foster carers. Foster care makes not only social and humanitarian sense, but also economic sense. The cost of providing a foster care placement for a child represents significant savings compared with a residential placement. Although it must be recognised that while it is the aim of the Government and the HSE to reduce the number of residential placements in the interests of children, there will always be a need for a continuum of services, from on-the-ground family support services to the intensive placements in the small number of special care places.

Another key recommendation of the working group is that the standards of practice applied in foster care should be of the highest level. The national standards for foster care along with a children's version were launched in 2003. The standards have a major role in ensuring foster care placements are adequately supported and that children in foster care receive the best possible care. The standards focus on areas such as the quality and consistency of services for children and young people in foster care, standards and practices related to foster carers and guidance to the HSE on how it can meet its statutory obligations effectively. These standards are the main tool for the social services inspectorate, SSI, which inspects foster care services, and the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA. Since the introduction of the standards, the SSI has completed a pilot inspection of foster care services, inspections of non-statutory foster care providers and two further inspections of the HSE fostering service in Meath and Dublin. The results of these inspections were in the main very positive with the children receiving a good standard of care by dedicated and committed foster carers and HSE staff.

In December 2005, a piece of research, called Lives in Foster Care, was published. I am heartened to see that the study produced positive findings on the daily lives of this young group of foster children in the areas of schooling, friendships and hobbies. The study found that on the whole the young people were leading regular lives. A total of 98% attended school regularly and the majority of them were expected to stay on in school. A total of 92% had regular friends and these friendships were deemed to be beneficial.

Another piece of research, entitled Counting on Foster Care, examined foster care in the eastern region of the HSE. In this the motives for fostering encompassed altruism and personal aspirations. This research is a resounding endorsement for involvement in fostering, indicating that foster carers felt that there were significant benefits to be derived from the experience of fostering for the children in their care and for their own families.

The Lives In Foster Care research, which I mentioned previously, also highlighted the benefits of relative foster care and the importance of being placed with a birth sibling. The latest available statistics from the HSE show 48% of children in foster care are in relative foster care. At the end of 1998, 635 children were in relative care. By October 2008, this figure had grown to 1,557, representing an increase of 145%. This is a positive development. Looking to the extended family members in the first instance is part of the national standards for foster care.

Foster carers play a crucial role in the lives of children by providing a welcoming place in their home at a vulnerable time in the children's lives. I commend foster carers on undertaking this role. Caring for children is not easy. Caring for children who are not one's own and who may have experienced traumatic events in their lives is certainly not easy. In recent years with the busy pace of life and with families' time taken up with the increasing demands and pressures of daily living, I am heartened to see that fostering is so active in our society.

Many of these foster carers are members of the Irish Foster Care Association which was established in 1981. Over this period, the association has grown to a membership of more than 1,000 with 28 active branches nationwide. I congratulate the association and thank it for inviting me to its recent annual conference in Trim. I am aware the association provides essential support through its training, information support, conferences and seminars.

The recruitment campaign held in November was very successful. Information resources were made available to create awareness of the fostering campaign. These included——