THE FIRST formal set of official data collected by the State on young people who leave care at the age of 18 but receive aftercare is expected to be available shortly.

Collection of data on young adults aged 18 to 21 receiving aftercare began to be collected formally in the third quarter of this year.

Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald said, however, that a HSE review earlier this year of the capacity of aftercare services showed there were 1,051 young adults in receipt of aftercare as of March, of whom 46 per cent were male and 54 per cent female. The figure for 2009 was 847, while 979 received care in 2008.

Sinn Féin health spokesman Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, who raised the issue in the Dáil, called for an amendment to the 1991 Child Care Act, which placed a statutory obligation on the HSE to assess the aftercare needs of each person leaving care.

He said the obligation in the Act, however, was “subjected to resources” and this was the “fault-line in terms of young people leaving care at 18 years of age and finding themselves with no aftercare provision”.

This, he said, “does not occur in a traditional family environment of whatever making in Irish society. Children in care should be no less deserving of a continuum of support at what is a difficult point in their adult lives.”

He asked the Minister what she could do to remove “that potential obstacle, an obstacle I fear has been used in the past”, and said the provision of services should be “on the basis of need” and not on the basis of what resources were available to the HSE.

Ms Fitzgerald acknowledged that “resources are an issue”.

“There are problems because of the demands of the services when it comes to the base funding available for children and family services within the HSE,” she said.

She added that 10 aftercare workers were recruited and this should help the situation.

The Minister also stressed that proper assessment of the needs of these young people “will have to be carried out. This will demand some form of prioritisation.”