As the Minister knows, our paths crossed when she was Minister for Education and I was working with the school completion programme. I worked with children and young people over a couple of decades, lots of whom have gone into care. As we all know, children and young people who go into care do so for a variety of reasons. Unfortunately, the resources to prevent young people from going into care are not always there. We need an increase in family support workers, youth workers, social workers and public health nurses. It starts with there not being enough public health nurses, especially in my constituency of Dublin South Central. That leads to knock-on effects such as young people missing milestones and maybe indicators that things may not be right being missed. We need to do everything possible to make sure a child does not need to go into care by ensuring their caregivers – their parents – are supported to do everything to make sure they stay there, provided it remains safe. That is why the early identification and prevention are of utmost importance. As education spokesperson, it would be remiss of me to not mention the detrimental effect being in care has or may have on a child who is in care. In January of last year, the CSO indicated that 7% of school-age children in care repeat at least one year in primary or post-primary school and 29% of young people in care leave school early. That proportion for young people who are not in care is 8%, so that is a whopping number of young people in care who do not complete the leaving certificate or equivalent. The number of placements a child may have in care also affects the education outcomes for them. If there is only one placement, early school leaving stands at about 20%. If there is more than one placement, it rises to 38%. It increases each time because the environment for the child is more unstable. I have worked with children who have moved from school to school because of placements. How are they supposed to be able to progress? We really need at all times to be preventing it, though I am aware that does not always work out. We cannot prevent every child from going into care, unfortunately. In my remaining time, I wish to look at the care needs of young people in Ireland, particularly their emotional and psychological needs. Over the time I worked with young people I have found these needs are often not the top priority. The priority is giving them somewhere to sleep, bringing them to different things and telling them about things. It is a very functional relationship. However, being in loco parentis means you are replacing who is not there. In such circumstances, where is the emotional and psychological support that comes from with being a human being? We all need to be nurtured, we all need to be loved and we all need to feel we are part of a family and a community, but children in care often do not feel that. They particularly do not feel it when they are coming towards the age of 18 and are going to be moving into aftercare, which can be a harsh and cruel place where there is a lack of love. It is a scary time for them. Many us here may be parents. The 18-year-olds we have need us as much at that age as they when they were 14 or even younger. They have different needs. They are entering into a time of independence, and things can be uncertain. There is rapid growth in their development from their social lives, things they might be learning and their jobs, and they need us. That is the same for children who are in care but they do not get that often, especially if they are in residential care because there is shift work and people are on and off. This is the challenge. How do we make sure we care for the children who are in care, especially those who are going into aftercare? In youth work, young people are seen as individuals up to the age of 24 or 25. That is true not only in Ireland but also in other countries. When it comes to our aftercare system, that is a very vulnerable time for children. We need to ensure that young people are cared for and helped to transition into adulthood in the way that would happen if they were at home. I commend anybody who works with children in care, be they foster carers, those who work in residential care or those who help families to have meetings, if it is possible to have meetings. It is hard and it is heartbreaking, but we have to do better. We have to do the best we can to make sure that those young people are loved, nourished and cared for. The word "care" extends not just to the family but also to us, as a society, when those young people are taken away from their families, whether temporarily or permanently, and placed in care.

Sentiment score: 0.24