‘Budgets being put before children’

Child welfare groups last night warned that new watchdog reports indicating foster children were still at risk of being placed in inappropriate settings was a case of “putting budgets before children”.

Newly released reports by the Health Information Quality Authority (Hiqa), looking at HSE Dublin South East and HSE Louth, pinpointed a number of concerns.

Among the main issues were that foster care families are still not undergoing adequate Garda vetting, and that some placements are being made on the basis of availability rather than the specific needs of some vulnerable children.