I welcome the opportunity to speak on these very important issues. The reality is that State is failing vulnerable children. A lady contacted me in my clinic on Monday. She was in foster care the majority of her life. For a short period when she was 17, she tried to go back home and rebuild a relationship with her mother but this did not work out and she went back into residential care. When she turned 18, she was told there was no aftercare service for her. For the majority of this young lady's life she has been in care. Now at 21, she has been homeless for three years. I could not believe it when talking to this young woman on Monday that for her whole life, she has been in foster care, residential care, and now in homeless accommodation, with no support. The State has abandoned this young woman. If someone does not step in and provide aftercare and help for her now, what is going to be her future? The treatment of children and young people shows that the system puts rules, regulation and bureaucracy ahead of children. How can that be right? The system - from the courts to the care system - is not designed with children and young people at its core, as they should be. We do not need to look any further than the special emergency care arrangements for proof of this. We are talking about children being placed in unregulated, unsuitable bed and breakfast accommodation, hotels and rental accommodation. How in the name of God is that right in this day and age? Deputy Kerrane has described these as modern-day mother and baby homes. She is correct because they are. It is a case of out of sight, out of mind for these children. People come to me who have come out of treatment and are in recovery. They cannot get access to their children because they do not have suitable accommodation. They do not have a home. Their children are being left in foster care although Tusla say they could go with their parents or mother if they had a home.

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