Some 500 foster-care places are to be created as part of a post-Budget childcare package announced yesterday by the Minister of State for Children, Mr Frank Fahey.
A range of measures to tackle the problem of homeless children was also announced by the Minister.
Mr Fahey said the total package would cost £28 million and its focus "will be on supporting vulnerable children in the family and community setting and keeping them out of residential care".
Measures aimed at children in trouble with the law are included in the package which spans the Departments of Health and Children, Education and Science, and Justice Equality and Law Reform.
Mr Fahey said foster-parents would receive a "quite significant increase" in their weekly allowance next year. This will be announced early in the new year, he said. In the meantime, a £100 Christmas bonus is to be paid in respect of each child in care.
He announced a pilot project to remove children from residential detention and provide them with foster care. To deal with the problem of homeless children in Dublin, the Minister said Dublin Corporation is to provide five houses which the Eastern Health Board will use for family support services and, where necessary, to provide accommodation for the children. These will be located in Tallaght, north Clondalkin, Ballymun, the north inner city and Darndale.
The already-announced high-support unit for children at Portrane in north Dublin and the secure support unit planned for Ballydowd near Lucan, Co Dublin, would cost about £5 million each to build, Mr Fahey said. The annual cost of running each unit would be about £2 million. These units will each provide 24 places.
The Ballydowd unit will open early in 2000 and the unit in Portrane in 2001.
A sum of £1 million is to be provided for educational services for children being released from residential care or custody or who are homeless and at risk.
Mr Fahey said a care programme is being devised to support single teenage mothers whose babies are thought to be at medium risk by maternity hospital staff.
Mothers whose babies are at high risk already receive support services but the medium-risk mothers slip through the net, he said. They often return with babies whose medical problems are really social problems arising from neglect by young mothers who may never have received proper parenting themselves.
Other measures announced include:
St Michael's Remand and Assessment Unit in Finglas, Dublin, is to be redeveloped to include a special facility for children who are about to be released back into the community.
An extra 26 Home-School-Community Liaison Co-ordinators and 10 teaching counsellors are to be appointed in disadvantaged areas at a cost of £1 million.
A programme aimed at children who drop out of school between the ages of eight and 15 is to be tested in 14 selected areas. This will cost £1.8 million.
The Garda Siochana will receive funding for six more juvenile crime prevention projects.
The Probation and Welfare Service is to get £1 million to develop specialised programmes for the 15-18 year age group in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway.