Between 10,000 and 12,000 children are currently raised in kinship care across Ireland, yet only about 3,000 of their carers receive financial assistance, highlighting a stark gap in state support for families stepping in during a crisis.
The Hidden Realities of Kinship Care in Ireland
Anna Rice knows the abrupt shift of becoming a kinship carer overnight. Raised by relatives or trusted family members when parents cannot provide care, kinship arrangements often begin without warning. For Rice and her husband in Trim, the journey started through an informal arrangement with her daughter, whose mental health and addiction issues made it impossible to properly care for her young son. The Meath Chronicle reported that other than a single visit from Túsla, Rice received no engagement or structural support from the state.
They have raised their grandson since he was four years old. Because he had spent every Friday night with them from infancy, the transition carried little initial trauma. But the logistical and financial burdens proved severe. Initially it was a very difficult journey because I was on my own,
Rice recalled. She navigated the system entirely unaided for over a year before discovering the guardian’s payment through an independent agency called Treoir.
That financial exclusion is structural, according to advocates. Carers must prove a child has been completely abandoned by their parents to qualify for support. If a parent maintains even an hour of weekly contact, the application is frequently denied. Rice pointed out the inherent contradiction in official policy: Unfortunately if child sees the parent even if its only an hour a week, they will turn it down. It is really unfair because in the foster care system, children and parent relationships are encouraged, but in kinship care, if relationships are encouraged you could be penalised financially.
Building Grassroots Networks from Trim to Dublin
Finding herself isolated during the early years of raising her grandson, Rice sought help online and discovered a UK-based group named Kinship Care. Realizing no equivalent peer network existed in Ireland, she launched the Kinship Care Ireland Facebook group in 2023, which has since grown to 141 members. She wanted a place where carers could connect late at night during difficult moments.
That digital network catalyzed real-world action. Following the model of an initial face-to-face peer group on Hill Street in Dublin City Centre, six additional groups followed. Most recently, a new chapter was established at the Trim Family Resource Centre, meeting on the second Friday of every month from 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM in the FRC bungalow. Rice now works alongside Diane O’Reilly, Community Development and Family Support at Trim FRC, to anchor these resources locally.
The broader national advocacy traces back to Caitriona Nic Mhuiris, who founded Kinship Care Ireland in 2020 after becoming an overnight carer to her four nieces following her sister’s death. Nic Mhuiris faced identical institutional silence despite her background as a community development worker and her husband’s profession as a social worker.
Advocates stress that while 99 percent of children thrive within family environments—making kinship care vastly preferable to foster care—the structural safety nets remain unequal. Foster carers undergo formal training and receive scheduled state preparation, whereas kinship carers are typically thrust into high-stress environments instantly. Children in kinship arrangements do not automatically receive medical cards or college grants, privileges standard in the foster care system. Anyone that comes into a kinship care situation, is coming with trauma, it’s always a traumatic situation,
Rice noted, emphasizing the urgent need for therapeutic and financial parity.
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