Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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932. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will extend the foster care allowance for children up to 23 years of age; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30639/21]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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There are no plans at present to raise the age for which foster care allowance are paid available up to age 23.

There are a number of aftercare supports already in place for young adults transitioning from state care to independent living.

Aftercare services are support services build on and support the work already undertaken by many including foster carers, social workers and residential workers in preparing young people for adulthood. Everyone has a role to play in preparing young people to reach their developmental milestones.

Legislative provision for aftercare has been strengthened by the Child Care (Amendment) Act 2015, which imposed a statutory duty on Tusla to prepare an aftercare plan for an eligible child or eligible young person, following an assessment of need. In response to the new legislative provision, Tusla has developed a suite of policies and guidance documents for aftercare support, which includes guidance on direct financial support.

The most prominent form of such support is the aftercare allowance, which is provided to cover a young person’s day to day costs as they progress in education or accredited training. The core age range for eligibility for aftercare is 18 to 21 years of age. Specific legislative provision is in place for aftercare to continue until a young person is 23 years of age where they are finishing a course of education. For those young adults who are not in education / training at 18 years, aftercare services support them in accessing any relevant financial allowances and support to which they may be entitled from the Department of Social Protection or other agencies. The amount of financial support an adult will receive at 18 years and the relevant agency or Department will be specific to each adult’s circumstances.

Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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933. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the recipients of the playing outside grant for early learning and care and school-aged childcare services by county in tabular form; the amounts allocated to each; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30653/21]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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As part of the Summer of Play initiative I announced recently a provision of €6 million in funding is being made to support outdoor play. One strand of this funding the Playing Outside Grant for Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School-Aged Childcare (SAC) services will provide €5.5 million in funding for services.

The objective of this grant is to support services to enhance their outdoor spaces for play and learning.

The Playing Outside Grant will be administered by Pobal on behalf of my Department and Pobal will provide further information on the application process to services, including detailed application guidelines.

The application process will open on 18 June and close on 31 August 2021. Information on the allocation of grants to individual services will be published online by Pobal in September 2021.

The grants will be based on the number of children in each service who are registered on my Departments childcare funded programmes and is as follows: