TUSLA have launched an urgent foster care recruitment appeal in Cork.
The child and family agency urgently requires more carers this year more than ever, due to the current humanitarian crisis and the impact of Covid-19 on communities.
3,991 foster carers currently open their homes to 5,248 children across Ireland.
TUSLA say there are many types of foster care such as short-term, long-term, emergency placements, respite fostering, and other supports, so a family can choose a way to foster that suits them best.
Speaking to RedFM News, Clare Murphy Regional Chief Officer for the South East, Tusla says foster carers are a core part of ensuring children who need foster care are cared for in a loving home environment:
"People used to feel in the past that in order to be a foster carer, "I have to be married and have to own my own house and I have to be not working." None of that applies anymore. We would have considered everybody who comes forward whether you're single married, same sex relationship on your house, don't own your house. We will talk to everybody who who believes that they could become a foster carer and we'll make an assessment as to whether or not they're suitable."
