Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is very welcome. It is a very important issue and Senator Keogan really highlights it. I always enjoy listening to her on this issue because she teaches us all an awful lot. I was struck by her commentary last week on the Order of Business in respect of the lives we are losing under State care. The Minister has a great responsibility. It is almost relentless. There are constant issues and for me they almost seem greater than any of us because there are so many barriers and pitfalls to creating a State full of adults and children as we want them to be. It is all our responsibility to look after the children in the State like they were all our own flesh and blood. We all have to fight for them. Senator Keogan is relentless on that. She is constantly speaking about children in care. These are our future adults, leaders, business people, and parents. It is so important we give them every single opportunity to be their best selves.

We see time and again, unfortunately, that the State fails very vulnerable children. The most high-profile recent case was the Grace case. The system itself was guilty of serious criminal negligence, in my opinion. Nothing was done, repeatedly. The poor wee child, whom we call Grace, was systematically abused in foster care. It is absolutely disgusting that we allowed this to happen. We are not personally responsible but we are, because this is our country and these are people we pay to look after little children like Grace. We fail them. The system itself is necessary for so many reasons but it is so important we put in every single procedure and step along the way. The Minister rightly said in his speech that the child's voice is the most important. We all know there is excellent work going on with our foster families. I know many foster families and they are incredible. As Senator Keogan said, we just do not have enough of them. We just do not have enough places.

I had to read the Minister's speech a few times as there is an awful lot of information in it. There is a lot of work going on in the Department. We have very important targets in our programme for Government, including the commitment to aftercare and transition. We all know aftercare and transition follow on not only for children in care but also for our disability services. That transition is very important to highlight. One thing as sure as God is that we are all going to get older. All children are going to hit 18, we would hope, and are going to want to reach those milestones. I see the Department is putting an awful lot of work into aftercare. There is no limit to the resources that should be put in. Senator Keogan mentioned that girl who is so grateful for everything. She should not have to be so grateful because it is our responsibility to look after her. She has proved herself and has worked so hard, yet she is afraid to leave because she does not have the support. I am nearly 40 years of age and I cannot manage without the support of my family. As a country we need to treat ourselves as the family support unit.What came up, and comes up time and time again, was resources, staff, foster care homes, suitable emergency care and the need to transition away from private providers. That was necessary throughout Covid-19 when a great deal of resources were put into private care. It was important and necessary then. We need to get to a point where we do not have to use this. The inflexibility of the system also came up, and the need to look at the individual's care needs and see what is best, as what is best for Erin might not be best for Mary. We need to look at the person. We had an excellent engagement with the Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth when that exact same point came up around the lack of individualisation, the lack of looking at the person and the family unit as a whole and considering how best to support that child and support the mother or father to make sure they are not falling into child poverty or fuel poverty. It is an endless circle where a person steps up and gets a job, and then starts to lose his or her benefits or support package. There is an endless amount of "do this, but you will be punished over here". We need to starting looking at the person and stop this siloing of benefits or supports to the family. Regardless of the structure of the family, be it a foster family, a single-parent family or a grandparent looking after a child, there is a family to be supported with whatever it needs.

I welcome the Minister's comment that we can make this country one of the best small countries in which to grow up. We have to make sure we do not fail any more children. We must support them. We should look at their little faces and say each of them will be a bloody great adult when he or she grows up, because he or she is worth it. Another thing that came up at the committee, exactly as Senator Keogan said, is that people do not trust Tusla. The families that potentially are in need and could do with extra supports or a bit of advice do not go to Tusla. They feel Tusla is an agency that will take away the child or make the parents look bad. We need to transform that. We need to change that attitude. We need to make that Tusla is there for the person and not for the system.