Tony Gregory
Question:97 Mr. Gregory asked the Minister for Health the cost to the State of keeping a child in care for one year. [15962/95]
Written Answers. - Cost of Children in Care.
The cost of maintaining children in care varies from case to case depending on a number of factors, including the age and needs of each individual child, whether he or she is placed in foster care or residential care, whether he or she requires specialist medical care, psychological or social work support or counselling and the level of supervised access between the child and his or her parents. In the circumstances, I do not think it would be helpful to try to calculate an average "unit cost" for maintaining a child in care.