I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber and thank her for being here. I acknowledge the good work and intervention by the Minister, Deputy Foley, last week in relation to an issue in Tipperary with St. Bernard's therapeutic fostering support service, which provides foster care support across counties Tipperary, Kilkenny and Carlow. Tusla, because of the Minister's intervention, has agreed to continue that service for 2026.

This is a service that is critical and extremely important in the area. While the decision to retain St. Bernard's therapeutic fostering support service for 2026 is very welcome, the underlying issues have not gone away.

I met Róisín Stewart and Andrew Kennedy in St. Bernard's this week and Tusla has informed them it is its intention to move towards a standardised model from 2027. Tusla staff will engage with St. Bernard's to learn its approach and attempt to replicate it elsewhere but a therapeutic service built on relationships, trust and independence cannot simply be replicated through observation. The model used by St. Bernard’s is unique in that it prioritises continuity of care. Children and foster carers are supported by professionals who know them well, understand their history and have built trust over many years. In some cases, these relationships has been in place for over a decade.

Tusla’s own standards emphasise stability and relationship-based care. The concern is that moving to a more standardised model risks replacing that continuity with a more transactional service where families engage with whoever is available rather than someone they trust. For children who have already experienced instability, losing that consistent therapeutic relationship is not a small change but a significant disruption. The high staff retention within St. Bernard’s is not incidental; it is what allows those relationships to develop over time. That level of continuity is extremely difficult to replicate in large centralised systems with higher staff turnover.

Tusla’s own foster care standards emphasise the need to support carers and maintain stability for children. The question here is whether an internal, standardised model can genuinely provide the same level of support and trust because for many of these children St. Bernard’s is not just a service but their person, their safe place, their constant. Removing that is not a neutral change. If a service is contributing to placement stability removing it without clear evidence of an equal replacement risks undermining one of Tusla’s core objectives. In addition, moving the service to north Cork raises access issues. For someone in my hometown of Clonmel who perhaps gets a bus to St. Bernard’s in Fethard, access will become a significant challenge. The service is working and is trusted. It is retaining placements. Removing it is incredibly risky and not a decision Tusla should take without offering a very clearly superior service in its place.

There are so many who have gone through the service. One child, who I will not name, wrote to me asking me to read out his experience of the service. It will only take 20 seconds or so. He said he came into foster care when he was six days old and was finally adopted in September 2021. The adoption process took four years and nine months. At the start of his adoption his parents did the therapeutic fostering service course and he said he is so lucky he got Samantha O’Doherty as his therapeutic support worker from St. Bernard’s. She was amazing. At the time he had a social worker who did not listen to him or have his best interests at heart. Samantha was the only person at the time who was working with him who cared about what he had to say and what he wanted. She was one of the only professionals he had over the years who cared for him and fully trusted him. Every Monday after school she would come to his house to make stuff with him and to talk with him. He says she helped him so much through a space and time in his life when he was old enough to know what he wanted but not old enough to go and speak to a judge about it. Samantha also came to the Adoption Authority of Ireland with him. He thinks this service from St. Bernard’s helped him a lot and he would not want it to close because just that one worker helped him so much throughout his time in care, so imagine what 15 per county would do.

That is a young guy who is 16 and has been going through the St. Bernard’s service, as his carers have been, for a decade. It is one example of many I am aware of that show this service is so vital for the area.

I thank the Senator. Once again I am taking this on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Foley. I acknowledge the interest of Members in matters concerning foster carers. In particular, the Minister would like to thank Senator Ahearn for raising the important issue of supports for foster carers in the south Tipperary area. As he will know, the Minister is a strong supporter of foster carers and the valuable work they do in our society. She would like to take this opportunity to recognise and acknowledge this work and to convey her appreciation to all foster carers. At the end of December 2025, some 5,058 children were being cared for by foster parents in Ireland. This figure equated to approximately 86% of all children in care. This figure compares favourably with our European neighbours and we should be justly proud of that. It is foster carers who have made this achievement possible. The Government, for its part, has supported foster carers through strong investment, including the provision of a foster care allowance, to ensure foster carers are not financially burdened in caring for the vulnerable children they welcome into their homes.

The Minister is acutely aware of the invaluable role services such a St. Bernard’s play in the lives of foster parents and the children they care for. I fully understand that is the issue the Senator is raising as well as the unique and valuable service St. Bernard's is. I listened carefully to what he had to say. As such, it is a priority of the Minister that the suite of supports available to foster carers is expanded to ensure foster carers throughout the country are well supported.

In respect of St. Bernard’s Children’s Services in Tipperary, the Minister is aware that at a recent meeting with foster carers affected by this situation, Tusla listened carefully to their opinions and concerns. Tusla has advised that through this engagement, foster carers made clear how strongly they felt about the service and its importance in supporting both them and the children in their care. The Minister can advise that Tusla subsequently took the decision to roll back on its original decision, thereby recognising that there had not been an appropriate level of consultation and engagement with foster carers prior to the initial decision to cease the service. I do not know about the Senator, but to me that is a strong enough statement. I understand that the agency has written to the affected foster carers on the matter and apologised for the concern and worry this has caused them. Furthermore, the Minister is glad to inform the House that Tusla has taken the decision to maintain service provision with St. Bernard’s for 2026 with no disruption to current supports, which I am sure the Senator will agree is a most welcome decision. I further understand that Tusla will engage with foster carers throughout 2026 in the co-design, which is an important word, of supports to be provided going forward into 2027. Tusla staff have communicated this to the affected foster carers and will meet them in person in the coming weeks.

Both Tusla and the Department are committed to supporting foster carers and to providing them with the supports they need to look after the children and young people in their care.

I thank the Minister of State very much for her response. As she said, it needs to be acknowledged, through the Minister's intervention. The work the Irish Foster Care Association has done and the support it has given me over the past week on this issue played its part in Tusla rolling back on that decision of ending the service with St. Bernard's. It is hugely welcome that has been done, as was the acknowledgement from Tusla that not enough consultation had happened. However, we do not want to be in this situation this time next year when Tusla decides again that it is going to end the services. It has talked about having a co-designed model and the Minister of State said that is an important word but that is not an easy thing for Tusla to do because the strength of this service is it supports both the child and the foster family together and that holistic approach is not easily replicated in a standardised model. The concern is whether replacing a specialised, relationship-based service with a standardised model can genuinely meet those principles in practice. One of Tusla's core emphases is that if services are removed services of equal or better standard are provided somewhere else. From my knowledge of the foster service provided, no service in the country provides the type of personal support that St. Bernard's does to foster carers and the children in the area.

If Tusla is setting up a standardised model across the country, it is very difficult to provide exactly that co-designed service that is provided at St. Bernard's. I acknowledge and appreciate that the proposal is being rolled back and the service will continue, but I am not convinced that the specialised service provided at St. Bernard's can be provided by Tusla in a standardised model. That is a discussion that needs to be had throughout the year with Tusla.

I thank the Senator. It is not in my notes but I agree with the final statement made by the Senator, which is an important one. Aside from that, I thank the Senator for raising this important issue. I hope I have clearly addressed the issue at hand and the Minister has provided sufficient assurances regarding the ongoing support of Tusla to St. Bernard's children's services. Once again, the Minister wants to put on record that Tusla has confirmed that services at St. Bernard's will continue in 2026 and 2027.

I reiterate the Minister's support for foster carers and acknowledge their value to society as a whole. As Senators will know, over a number of recent budgets there has been ongoing significant investment in foster care such as the increase in the foster care allowance, the introduction of the additional placement payment, the funding of the peer support model and the extension of the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance to foster carers.

I repeat that I will personally make it my business to bring the specific issue raised by the Senator to the attention of the Minister, Deputy Foley.