The lack of proper support services is preventing the foster care sector from reaching its full potential, it has been claimed.
It is also saving the State hundreds of thousands of pounds by placing children with foster families and keeping them out of more expensive residential care, according to an International Foster Care Organisation (IFCO) member, Ms Mary Collins.
The current policy was resulting in a serious lack of investment in foster care support facilities.
Ms Collins, who is chairwoman of the IFCO European Conference 2000 being held in University College Cork this weekend, explained there were currently 2,800 children in foster care with 2,000 foster families in the State.
Families receive on average £3,000 to £4,000 in allowances to cover the expense of fostering the child but are not paid for providing the service, and it was this attitude towards the service that was curtailing its development.
"Fostering is cheap when compared to providing residential care for a child, which can start at £70,000 . . . Support services are available from nine to five but fostering is a 24-hour, seven-day job.
"There is an allowance which covers expenses for the child but there is a case being made for professionalising the service and paying people because of the need for training and properly supporting people," Ms Collins said.
Foster families currently catered for some 80 per cent of children in care, with the remaining 20 in residential care, but a growing shortage of families and social workers was preventing the expansion of foster care facilities, she said.
"There is a shortage of foster families, and I think it's a growing problem . . . Today both partners generally have to work to pay the mortgage, and a child in foster care might need one-to-one care from a parent in the family," she added.
Some 700 delegates, including 300 from Ireland and incorporating foster carers and social workers, are expected to attend the three-day IFCO conference at UCC. It was officially opened last night by Ms Mary Banotti MEP.
