Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the delegates and apologise for missing the presentation, some of which I have read. The stated purpose of the agency is to work with families in communities to ensure the needs of children are met and to keep them safe from harm. Perhaps the delegates will elaborate on how they intend to do this, which I acknowledge will be a huge task.

How many staff will be employed in the agency and what will be their professions? It was mentioned by the delegates that they cannot deal with this issue on their own. I do not believe anybody would want them to do so. We will support them as much as we can. I would like to make an observation about family resource centres in terms of their diversity. Some deal only with particular sections of the community. In other words, they do not open their doors to the wider community. The downfall of some resource centres is that they home in on areas experiencing particular difficulties rather than meeting the needs of the wider community. It is a problem. How does the agency propose to address this problem?