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

The Deputy refers to family resource centres, but section 8 has been specifically crafted to deal with that issue. Subsection (d) reads as follows: "maintain and develop support services, including support services in local communities, relating to the functions specified in paragraph (a), (b) or (c). "
The phrase "support services in local communities" clearly refers to family resource centres.

On the grants issue, it is not a question of axing any grants. That is not the intention. The intention is to consolidate all of the grant-giving that the Family Support Agency did and that the HSE does in the area of family support. Rather than specifically bringing over particular descriptions of where money will go, we are simply consolidating the grant-giving function. We decided not to bring over the detailed description of where funds should go but to allow the agency as a whole to make such decisions in terms of funds for family support, child protection and so forth. We did not want to be overly prescriptive about it. It is certainly not our intention to exclude groups that were previously supported by the Family Support Agency.