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Tell Minister Fitzgerald about your disappointment about her back track on aftercare

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Minister for Children Minister Frances Fitzgerald (FG)

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I am writing to you to express my disappointment that the new Government did not take the opportunity to make the access to aftercare a legal right for children leaving state care when you passed the Childcare Amendment Bill before the summer.

During the Fianna Fail/Green Government I supported Focus Ireland's campaign to ensure that every child who leaves state care and needs continued aftercare to support them into independent adulthood has a legal right to such care. I was encouraged by the support which Fine Gael and Labour politicians gave during the Senate and Dail debates. The then opposition seemed to recognise that, while some progress was being made in the delivery of aftercare, a legal commitment would make a real difference to these most vulnerable young people.

I was also encouraged when you were appointed Minister for Children, particularly when you restated your commitment to a legal basis for child protection.

So it was a deep disappointment to me when I heard that the Childcare Amendment Bill was passed in July without the aftercare amendment the now Government had loudly supported when in opposition. Focus Ireland has alerted me to the commitments you gave the Oireachtas that you would give further consideration about legislation on aftercare. I hope these commitments to consider the issue do not prove to be as empty as similar commitments from the last Government.

I believe this is an important issue and, even in the difficult circumstances which our country now finds itself, it remains essential that these vulnerable young people who we take into the care of the state receive any aftercare they need when they reach adulthood.

Yours sincerely
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