Sharon Keogan Criticises Privatized Care, Pushes Foster Support
Sharon Keogan challenged the move toward private, unregulated residential care, arguing money should not be the reason children are placed outside foster families. She urged outreach to community organisations such as the GAA and FAI to keep children within their communities and pressed for clarity on how abuse complaints in private care are investigated and whether staff are removed pending inquiry.
Main critique of private and residential care
Keogan warned against allowing money to drive placement decisions and said foster parenting is both difficult and deeply rewarding. She said she does not favour the residential model and repeatedly argued for prioritising family-based foster care over privatized alternatives.
Foster care promotion and support
In response, the minister described ongoing efforts to promote fostering at community events, including ploughing championships and other local gatherings, and said early signs of improvement are appearing. The minister also noted a new initiative hiring experienced foster carers on 15-hour contracts to mentor and support other and new foster carers.
Community outreach proposal
Keogan asked whether organisations active in local communities - for example the GAA and the FAI - could be engaged to help keep children within their own communities and to support foster recruitment and retention.
Investigation of complaints and staff status
The minister said complaints about children in placements, whether foster, respite or residential, are investigated under established protocols for allegations of abuse. When asked whether a staff member is removed pending investigation, the minister replied that in most cases the person would be placed on leave, though it depends on the nature of the allegation.
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in a minute but any just in relation to the company minors you made a point there in relation to private providers wanting to come in to look after those children rather than the foster parent model why is that obviously it's money we cannot let money i mean we cannot let money be the reason why children people get into foster foster parenting it is the most rewarding the most difficult thing you'll ever do in your life but the most rewarding thing you can ever do and i i i really don't like the residential model i keep saying this um is there any way you can do an outreach to the the organizations that are very involved in communities like the gaa the the fai getting involved with them to try and keep children within their own communities um is there any way you can do look at look at that and also what happens if a complaint is made by a parent whose child has been abused or neglected in an unregulated privatized care how is it investigated is the person that's uh is the person removed from that uh setting thank you senator okay mr brief response just to say in terms of foster care we're at you know g events community events plowing championships blue you know all of the different um opportunities that we see across the country to try and promote fostering and as i said we're starting to see some green shoots coming from that a new initiative we did this year which has proven really successful is we've now employed foster carers themselves experienced foster carers on contracts 15 hours a week to be mentors and supports to other foster carers and new foster carers so there's lots of good initiatives and we're very happy to share you know any of those with you and in terms of where a complaint is made about a child in any of our placements whether that's in foster care or in an sea or in a residential that is investigated in the same way under our protocols for allegation of self-abuse thank you thank you very much thank you very much that investigation deputy market staff member that staff member the allegation is made against is that person removed pending investigation or does that person remain on until the investigation is complete in most cases that person would be placed on leave it would depend on the the subject of the the allegation okay thank you okay thank you
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