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

That is fine.

I thank both Deputies for their comments, particularly the good wishes for the new agency. As I said, it is a historic development and there is a very strong team in place led by Mr. Gordon Jeyes and the management team. A huge process has taken place already. An implementation group has been running for well over a year and a half, chaired by the Secretary General who is with me today. An outstanding job has been done in terms of the transition to the new agency but many challenges remain for it to meet, to which both Deputies referred. It is the right direction in which to go.

There is a budget of €602 million for current expenditure and €7 million for capital expenditure. I reiterate what I said earlier that we are not carrying over any deficit from the HSE. There has been a separating out of the budget. In fact, the departmental budget has increased overall by 3%. The Deputies will agree that at a challenging time that is a recognition of the priority the Government gives to young people, children and the services which will be provided by the agency and our Department.

We have some additional funding in a range of areas and it is important I put that in context. There has been increased funding and Deputies will see the figures have gone up for child care overall and for the youth programmes compared to what had been intended. There is also the development of the area based childhood initiatives. In regard to the point Deputy McLellan made on the overall economic situation, clearly job creation and lifting people out of poverty through the creation of jobs will impact on the very children we are talking about. In particular, the area based childhood initiatives will make a qualitative difference to the lives of children and families having difficulties. We have seen that from the work that has already gone on in the three areas where these programmes have been implemented. That is why the voluntary organisations are so pleased and excited by this and why we have seen in the docklands area of Dublin, for example, 42 agencies coming together to work under the umbrella of the ABC initiatives. We are seeing that in other areas also. To take up Deputy Troy's point on voluntary organisations, the approach being taken by the ABC initiatives deals with one aspect of the point he made and I will deal with the other one on increased co-operation among the voluntary sector and accountability. The umbrella approach being taken, asking agencies to work together, is very positive.

Deputy Troy raised a number of issues, which I will go through as quickly as I can. He asked about the provision of public health nurses and the CAM service to families and the integration into the agency. The task force made a broad series of recommendations. A decision was taken to move ahead with the agencies currently under the umbrella but this year, I intend to start of process of discussion and examination of the best engagement with public health nurses, because that must go on whether they are inside or outside the agency, and with CAMs. We have started this discussion in terms of making sure CAM services are available to the children and families being served by the agency. That is very important, as is the question of precisely how that will develop.

In the same way we had to have a lot of discussion about the integration of the National Education and Welfare Board, for example, into the agency, the same process will have to be gone through in regard to that engagement with public health nurses and we will begin to do that. Deputy Troy spoke about discussions with the public health nurses. Some public health nurses specialise in working with the children and families while others have caseloads which are mixed where they work with the elderly and deal with a whole range of issues which arise in primary care. In terms of precisely how that will develop and what the end point will be, the task force said they should be in the agency and we will certainly start that discussion in more detail this year in regard to CAM services and the public health nurses. However, it is very important we give the agency an opportunity to begin the work from where it is currently and to integrate the agencies it started out with and to develop the services. In advance of developments in that area, there must be very close co-operation between public health nurses, the CAM services and the agency.

Recently, I had a meeting with officials of the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, and some of the voluntary organisations to discuss how we can develop that close co-operation between mental health services and the kind of work that is being done by the Child and Family Agency. It is very important that continues and, as I said, we will begin discussions with both groups with a view to teasing out the current relationship and future potential and how that can develop.

Deputy Troy raised a point about the voluntary sector and clearly people are very concerned about governance in that sector. Mr. Gordon Jeyes has issued a letter to all voluntary organisations which come under the remit of the agency and, more importantly, he met all of them last year and had discussions about the services provided. The tradition has been to give money to agencies, perhaps without a detailed and specified contract. I think he is very much moving in the direction of service level agreements with the voluntary organisations with whom the agency works.

Some €100 million is provided to voluntary organisations by the agency, in addition to the more than 100 family resource centres. The establishment of the agency will lead to a greater alignment between the work of the voluntary organisations and the priorities of Government and the agency. In fact, as recently as yesterday, I spoke to Mr. Jeyes about this issue. As I said, he had meetings with all of the voluntary organisations last year and he is certainly moving in the direction of service level agreements in line with the priorities he has. That is very important because there was a more distant relationship previously, as we have seen very clearly in recent discussions about voluntary organisations.