Kinship care representatives to meet with the Joint Committee on Drugs Use

The meeting will include the following representatives: 

Mr. Wayne Stanley, CEO, Empowering People in Care
Ms. Fiona Murray, Advocacy Manager, Empowering People in Care
Ms. Fiona Kearney, CEO, FamiliBase
Mr. Brendan Cummins, Deputy CEO, FamiliBase
Ms. Shaunie Kelly, Child, and Family Manager, FamiliBase
Ms. Laura Dunleavy, Coordinator, Kinship Care Ireland
Ms. Anna Rice, Kinship carer, lived experience expert and advocate, Kinship Care Ireland
Mr. Damien Peelo, CEO, Treoir Charity that hosts Kinship Care Ireland Programme, Kinship Care Ireland
Mr. Gary Broderick, CEO, SAOL
Ms Réidin Dunne, Head of Services, SAOL

 Speaking ahead of the meeting, Deputy Gannon said: 
  

"In the last two weeks the Committee met with a number of representatives from across the country to discuss family and community supports for drug users. This week we will continue our focus on supporting families, children, and young people by meeting with representatives to discuss care and kinship care. 

The public hearing this week is a timely discussion in the Committee work plan to discuss the challenges facing our families and communities with this issue as this week, October 6th-10th will mark Ireland’s second ever Kinship care week, a global awareness campaign to spotlight the thousands of kinship care families that step up everyday to raise children on behalf of relatives and close friends. 

Kinship Care and care arrangements are an invaluable resource and support to children and families. It is estimated that 10,000 to 12,000 children and young adults are under kinship care. Kinship carers offer stability for children and young people and prevents children from entering State Care. Informal Kinship Care or private arrangements can be challenging for families in the long- term. While it provides substantial value for children remaining with Kin and within their own community there are significant pressures for families including economic, housing, educational and psychological.

Young people in disadvantaged areas are much more likely to be put into kinship care or the care system than their peers and, there is no doubt, the role of drugs in society and financial supports is inextricably linked to their future social and economic success.  On top of this, we have children living at risk in harmful environments, under emotional and physical distress, with parents or guardians who are dependent on drugs. 

As a Committee, we have to investigate how we can best outline the findings of our witnesses this week to accurately represent young people’s complex experiences with care and parental drug use and find innovative solutions to reduce the impact of drugs on the most vulnerable in society." 

The Joint Committee on Drugs Use has 14 Members, nine from the Dáil and five from the Seanad.

The Committee meeting can be viewed live on Oireachtas TV. Committee proceedings can also be viewed on the Houses of the Oireachtas Smartphone App, available for Apple and Android devices.