Foster carers are baf f led by lack of Budget help for 13th year in a row
FOSTER carers say they can’t understand why they weren’t offered any financial help in the Budget.
Despite the recent surge in prices during the cost-of-living crisis, this is now the 13th consecutive year that the foster care allowance hasn’t been increased, despite appeals to the Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure.
Catherine Bond, chief executive of the Irish Foster Care Association (IFCA), said: ‘We made preBudget submissions, weeks in advance, to all of the political parties and to Minister Michael McGrath and Minister Paschal
Donohoe clearly outlining the urgent need for support for foster carers. What they decided speaks volumes about what the State thinks of foster carers.
‘The foster care allowance has only increased twice in the last 23 years, in 2000 and 2009, and the latest increase was only by €6. There has been no recognition of inflation and the additional costs associated with raising a foster child.
‘Foster parents in Ireland go above and beyond to look after the State’s most vulnerable children and raise them in a loving family. Many of them give up paid positions to care for these children on behalf of the State and they are still not even recognised for their pension because they are considered as “not working”.
‘It’s not like the Government was not aware of these issues. They chose to ignore them. The question we want to ask is what is the rationale for the non-recognition of foster carers?’
She said foster parents who are not being financially supported cannot physically and emotionally support vulnerable foster children who have often had incredibly traumatic lives.
Asked what she thinks the future of foster care will be, Ms Bond said: ‘These fantastic parents will continue to do what they do and look after children, but they are just so disappointed by the lack of value that has been attributed to them. We will continue to highlight what foster parents need.’
Lauren O’Toole, 21, has been in foster care since she was two and last week told the Oireachtas how carers deserve better support.
She said: ‘How are we going to recruit more foster carers when they are not being supported in any way? It doesn’t make any sense at all to me. Me and my foster dad have already been through it but who I really feel for now is the people currently going through foster care. We deserve better.’
Up to 90% of children in State care are in foster homes. The current foster care allowance for children under the age of 12 is €325 per week, and for those over the age of 12 it is €352.
The Irish Foster Care Association has recommended an increase in the foster care allowance by €100 per week and a one-off allowance of at least €350.
It also proposed that the Government cover mileage costs involving foster children from the point of leaving home, with no excess.
The private foster care agency, Fostering First, said: ‘It is time for Ireland’s foster carers to be recognised for the fantastic work they
‘Foster parents go above and beyond’ ‘The backbone of the system’
carry out, day in, day out.
‘The role of a foster carer, while rewarding and fulfilling, is also onerous and challenging. Yet, the families who provide this love and care have not seen an increase in the allowance for 13 years.’
It said that due to the high proportion of children in State care living with foster parents, they are the ‘backbone’ of the system.
Mr McGrath has said he understands the value of foster parents and he believed Tusla could consider requests for additional support.
He added that he would engage with the Minister for Children, Roderic O’Gorman, on the issue.