Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. The Minister of State will be aware that there are around 6,000 children in care in Ireland, and about 90% of those are in foster care. Foster carers are individuals who have a passion for what they do and they care for some of the most vulnerable children and young people in society. I know the Minister of State will have met many of them as well. They are incredible people for what they do. They do amazing work. They provide security and shelter while at the same time ensuring the child or young person can realise his or her own potential.

It is fair to say, however, that the sector is in a crisis, and that can even be gauged by looking at the numbers. In January of this year, there were 3,914 foster carers registered in Ireland. That figure is down from 4,387 in 2017. The Irish Foster Care Association, in a survey of 460 carers this year, found that 76% of those surveyed would not recommend fostering due to financial pressures and the lack of support from the State. Those are the two critical reasons we have a recruitment and retention problem in this area.

Critical to this is the level of payment. A foster parent is paid €325 per week for those children under the age of 12, and €352 for those aged 12 plus. Those payments have not been increased since 2009. It has been the exact same payment level over all of that time. Why that is difficult is because of the costs associated with bringing up a child or young person. There are additional costs, especially given some of the challenges facing these children and young people. I refer particularly to travel expenses. We all know about the cost of fuel, and those parents regularly have to drive those children, often weekly, to meet members of their birth family. They often have to get them to medical appointments to see their therapist and so on. There are also concerns in that for those who take time out of work to engage in foster caring, it can be difficult for them to be able to qualify for a State contributory pension. Certainly, I know that among older foster carers, this continues to be a concern.

The other aspect, apart from the question around the levels of financial supports that are available, is around the access to State supports. A majority of those in foster care report that they do not have regular access to social workers or foster link workers. It is absolutely critical, if we think about how vulnerable some of these children and young people are, that there is regular access to those supports, especially out of hours. Tusla talks about an out-of-hours helpline, but frequently, if an incident arises, often the only recourse a foster carer has is to call the Garda. That is not the appropriate course of action that has to happen.

The Minister of State and I know that, even looking at this just in economic terms, there is a significant net saving to the State in a loving foster family caring for these young people rather than these children and young people having to go into care. The cost of placing those children in State care would be a multiple of that of having them placed in a loving family. While I appreciate Tusla has published a strategic plan for foster care services, foster carers on the ground are not feeling it. They say that the levels of financial and State supports are not there, and I made that point about there being no increase since 2009. It is my view that there needs to be, at this critical juncture, a complete, independent review of the foster care system in Ireland, addressing in particular both the levels of financial and State supports to those families.