A second Government Department has had to withdraw a circular cutting back a Christmas bonus to foster parents.
The circular, issued by the Department of Health and Children, would have clawed back about half of a special £100 bonus announced by the Minister of State for Children, Mr Frank Fahey.
Earlier this month an outcry forced the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs to withdraw a circular issued by his Department which would have denied a bonus to thousands of people on supplementary welfare allowance.
The latest U-turn was greeted with delight by foster parents who had been enraged by what they saw as penny-pinching by officials at the Department.
Ms Pat Whelan, secretary of the Irish Foster Care Association, said she was "over the moon" at the move, which would enable foster parents to give the children in their care a good Christmas.
Ms Rio Hogarty, a Dublin foster parent and a member of Mr Fahey's official working group on fostering, said she was delighted that it had been accepted that there were foster parents who really needed the money.
Both she and Ms Whelan said they were in no doubt that the attempted clawback was the work of officials and not of Mr Fahey.
Mr Fahey had announced the special £100 Christmas bonus per child at a press conference on the day after the Budget. He said he was prompted to do so by complaints from foster parents that what they normally received at Christmas (£41.20 for a foster child under 12 and £51.65 for older children) did not cover the cost of presents or other Christmas costs.
Subsequently, however, the Department of Health and Children told the State's health boards that the £100 should include the amounts normally received.
This meant that instead of getting an extra £100, foster parents of children under 12 would get an extra £58.80 and those with children over 12 an extra £48.35 per child.
The Department told The Irish Times on Wednesday that some parents had "misinterpreted" the Minister's announcement and that if they could show they were in genuine hardship they could apply to the health boards for help.
That advice further angered foster parents. Ms Hogarty said foster parents on low incomes would apply to the Society of St Vincent de Paul for assistance rather than humiliate themselves by pleading poverty to health board officials.
The series of events which led to the U-turn is now being seen as arising from a "misunderstanding" by officials of the Minister's announcement.
The practice of paying a social welfare Christmas bonus only to long-term social welfare recipients should be ended, says the Society of St Vincent de Paul said. Up to 150,000 people are excluded by the rule, said Mr Noel Clear, the president of the society. "It would cost less than £4 million to ensure that these people are treated with the same dignity as other social welfare recipients," he said in a statement.