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Foster Care

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 September 2020

Tuesday, 8 September 2020

Questions (50)

Patrick Costello

Question:

50. Deputy Patrick Costello asked the Minister for Children, Disability, Equality and Integration if his Department will take initiatives to support recruitment of Traveller families to become foster parents. [22369/20]

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Written answers

I thank the Deputy for his important question.

My Department works closely with Tusla to support initiatives that will encourage and support Traveller families to become foster parents. I have recently approved funding under our What Works initiative for a pilot project in Tusla to support members of the Traveller and Roma communities to become foster carers. This will assist with progressing a specific action (Action 58) in the National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy 2017-2021 (NTRIS).

The new initiative is intended to have a positive impact on the number of Traveller and Roma families fostering children, allowing children who cannot live with their birth family to retain a connection with their ethnic background.

Tusla's Shared Rearing project is a long term initiative designed to encourage Traveller families to become foster carers which was established nationally during the 1990s. This project continues today and it is the intention of my Department and Tusla that this project will expand, from the relatively small number currently of 13 foster families from the Traveller community, to a greater number in the future.

In 2019 the recruitment of Traveller families was a specific focus of Tusla’s national fostering recruitment campaign and members of Traveller community assisted the campaign by speaking at the national launch of the campaign.

Tusla also worked jointly with a community health Traveller project and Pavee Point in 2019 to launch a revamped social media advertisement campaign. Using the TUSLA and Pavee Point websites and social media pages, Traveller families were encouraged to enquire about foster care. Additional information from TUSLA also featured in the Traveller Voice magazine in 2019 to strengthen awareness of the importance of this area.

These initiatives, and the most recent pilot project, are designed to encourage and support Traveller and Roma parents to consider becoming foster parents, and, should they decide to apply, to support them through the process.

My department will continue to engage with all relevant stakeholders to implement improvements and improve outcomes for all service users, and to bring a focus on the particular needs of the Traveller and Roma communities.

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