There needs to be more support for foster carers to ensure the number of children in residential care does not increase, according to the Irish Foster Care Association (IFCA).
The proportion of children in foster care out of all children in the care of the State fell from 91% in 2020 to 87% in 2025.
Speaking on RTÉ's This Week, IFCA Chief Executive Corrinne Hasson highlighted the difference in costs between foster and residential care.
"If you have a child over 12, that’s €425 per week that’s going from the State into the Foster Carer’s Allowance for the child," she said.
"If you have a child in a residential care setting it is around €8,000 per week. So the costs are absolutely staggering."
She said that the impact on the child was as big a challenge as the financial cost.
"In the residential setting, you don’t have a family to look after you - you have staff who come and go. They don’t know you as much as a foster family would," she said.
"What we find is that children are moved about - they’re just getting settled and then they are moved again. The impact of that for the child, who have already been removed from their family home, is hugely traumatic."
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Ms Hasson highlighted the emotional difficulties that children in foster care face at Christmas time as they are separated from their birth families and dealing with trauma in many cases.
"Christmas for many families is challenging but when you have a child in care living in your home there are lots of added complexities. It’s about keeping routines, about reassuring the child where they are going to be for Christmas and that Santa is coming to them just like other children," she said.
She also highlighted the support children of foster carers provide, calling them 'children who foster’.
"These are the birth children who are opening up their homes and their families to these children coming in, and making Christmas as fun and exciting as possible," said Ms Hasson.
Asked why there are difficulties in getting foster carers, Ms Hasson said that modern life was presenting challenges with the need for separate rooms for foster children, more couples out working and the housing crisis.
She highlighted the need for fostering to fit in with modern lifestyles and that many alternatives, such as single parents, can provide solutions.
The State recently increased the Foster Care Allowance by €70, the first increase in 15 years.
Ms Hasson said the increase was welcome but that more support was needed to address the cost of living increases.
On the issue of pensions, she pointed out that the allowance does not include contributions towards the State’s contributary pensions, even in the case of long-term carers who may have looked after 40 to 50 children over their lifetime.
Ms Hasson said that foster carers provide an invaluable service.
"We know that children are better placed at home with a foster carer," she said.
"Someone who gets them up in the morning, knows what they want for breakfast, gets them up for school and are there for them at the end of the day.
"That’s where we want children to be, that’s where they thrive."
