Children in Care
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-18
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Naoise Ó Muirí (FG), Dublin Bay North

There are nearly 4,000 foster parents in Ireland who open their homes long term to children who often come from difficult and traumatic starts in life. The Minister has met them, as have I. It is a vocation for those families. At times, I wonder how they do it because of the workload involved, but they are really committed. Part of the challenge is that the number seems to be dwindling. There were over 4,000 a few years ago. Now, there are 3,800 foster parents who have 6,000 children in their care. I do not want to see a move away from a really good family-based environment for those children either back into institutional care or into private care where they will lose the family connection built up with those children. Everything we can do to encourage parents to get involved and keep them in that area is to be welcomed and explored. I appreciate the challenged the Minister set out but looking at pension provision should be part of that.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-18