Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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323. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the cost of foster care services per annum; the way this service is administered and if he has analysed regional discrepancies in the number of children placed in foster care. [42848/14]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Under the Child Care Act, 1991 and the Child and Family Agency Act, 2013, the Child and Family Agency has a statutory duty to promote the welfare of children who are not receiving adequate care and protection. The majority of children in care, some 93%, are in foster care, and one third of those are placed with relatives. The budget for Foster Care and Other Allowances is reported by the Agency as €115.2 million for the full year.

The Child and Family Agency receives a child into care where it appears that a child requires care and protection that he/she is unlikely to receive unless he/she is taken into care. If a foster placement is assessed as being appropriate, then every effort is made to match the needs of the child to a suitable placement with a foster family. In these cases, the child has an allocated social worker who is there to plan and follow up with the necessary reviews.

The Agency is seeking to recruit more foster carers, most recently in particular, foster carers from different ethnic backgrounds and carers interested in caring for teenagers, children with challenging behaviour or children with disabilities. Where a person is interested in becoming a foster carer they must apply to the Agency, through their local office, which will provide advice initially. If the application is pursued further, the Agency will undertake a rigorous assessment of the person's suitability, a process which includes Garda vetting. If the applicants are to be placed on a Foster Care Panel, support and training is provided by the Agency. The carers are provided with a link worker for supervising training and other ongoing supports. I would also note that the Agency provides funding to the Irish Foster Care Association which provides additional supports to carers. When a child is placed with a foster family there is a payment made that is intended to support the child's expenses, including activities appropriate to that age group.

The numbers of children who are taken into care can vary from area to area and this is apparent from the statistics that are made available on the Agency's website. This variation across the country is not unexpected and is co-related with the under 18 years old population and the reported deprivation score by Haase Pratschke (Pobal, 2012).