More than 6,000 children are in a state care across the country, according to Tusla’s latest figures.

The vast majority are in foster care.

According to the Child and Family Agency’s latest figures, there were 6,006 children in state care at the end of August.

This is marginally less than last year, but a 5% decrease on 2015’s figures.

A total of 5,502 of the children are in foster care and 396 in residential care.

The remaining are in other types of care placements, such as a detention centres.

Cork is the region with the highest number of children in state care, with 772. The midwest comes in second, with 587.

There are also high numbers in all areas of Dublin, especially the ‘north city’ region, where there are 491.

Catherine Bond, the chief executive of the Irish Foster Care Association, says some of the children are not getting appropriate care.

"The one predominant issues that continues to raise its head is the need for supports for children with disabilities who are placed in foster care - the absence of services in that respect," she said.

"The other issue then would be if a foster carer does not have an allocated link social worker or the child in care does not have their social worker."

Of all the children in state care across the country, 3,853 are aged between six and 15 – with nearly 3,700 of them in full-time education.