Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If we look at the functions the Family Support Agency had and at the functions the new agency will have, one will see that the functions outlined in the Family Support Agency Act 2001 are effectively covered by the range of functions the new agency will have, apart from family mediation, which is now elsewhere.

The functions described in the Family Support Agency Act of 2001 are effectively covered by the range of functions that the agency has, apart from family mediation, which is now elsewhere. That is not being transferred. It has already been transferred to the Department of Justice and Equality, as Deputies know. The other functions of the agency, include providing family support, relationship counselling, supporting and developing the family and community resource centres, undertaking or commissioning research and so forth are all within the functions of the new agency. The only function not being transferred from those outlined in the Family Support Agency Act is that contained in that detailed section dealing with grants to particular organisations. I do not think it is appropriate to bring that across.

The whole point is that the work of the Family Support Agency is subsumed into the work of the new agency once it is set up. Legally and technically, the Family Support Agency does not exist from the date of the establishment of the new agency. However, I reassure Deputies that the functions of the agency have been captured in the section of the new Bill outlining the range of work that the new agency will do. We felt it was better, from a legislative point of view, to capture the work of the Family Support Agency in the new agency. That is the mechanism we have used. If Deputies look at the functions of the Family Support Agency and then at the functions of the new agency, they will see that they are spelled out clearly. There is no loss in terms of any area other than the one I mentioned earlier, family mediation. Those functions are all effectively captured in how we have outlined the work of the new agency. That is the intention.