Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is a definitely something there we need to address. Strangers are caring for a child and can terminate that placement within 28 days.

When we review, and clearly we are in a review phase, we must also review what happened before, what leads to that point where a child comes into care. Twenty-three years ago a group of us who were new people working in the City of Dublin YMCA came together and had the idea of building supported social housing, a foyer type project where accommodation was provided together with all the support services required for young people coming out of care because they were at a high risk of homelessness. I find it hard to believe that, 23 years on, nothing has changed very much. Anytime one is out with the homeless or speaks to people in this area, there is a definite pattern of people having grown up in care. On 9 November, Ms Kelly Anne Byrne, an ambassador for Focus Ireland, spoke at the Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. She was fantastic and spoke of having stability in her home with the help of Focus Ireland but she spoke of having come through care and of not having had that sense of stability or security. There is certainly a lifelong correlation there and we need to focus on that. It strikes me that we need a cross-departmental group working on this or perhaps we should reignite the idea of foyer projects and ensure we have all those support services for people coming out of care beyond those who are just in full-time education. I thank the Acting Chairperson for indulging me.