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

I welcome the increase in the provision for Tusla. Tusla has made a huge impact in communities in guiding groups as to how they should and should not function. If one was to take everything into account, we are in a different space than five or six years ago. When the previous Government was in office there was a huge duplication of services and money was being poured out to beat the band in communities. In my own community, I am aware of the amount of money that was paid to different groups and agencies, family resources centres and so on. It is not all about money, it is about the quality of the service who run it. Money is important but it is not the be all and end all of everything. It does not make running a family resource centre or any other agency better. What makes it better is that it is run properly and that the people in charge are capable of running it. I can only speak about my community. In the past money was poured into every agency, every community group and every family resource centre. Some of it did not make a damn difference because there was a duplication of services. In fairness to the Department and Tusla, things are starting to show a better picture of how things should be managed. This is what this is about, it is not about pouring money into services. It is about managing what one has and being able to distribute it properly and use it with better standards than have been used previously. I welcome the funding that is being allocated - whether it is will become known in time. I am very happy that Tusla has a plan for the next three years and maybe in that time it will have the opportunity to establish what services really work. There are services out there that are not working, they are a shambles and we need to look at them, parish by parish, at this stage. There are groups who say they are doing X, Y and Z when I know in my heart and soul they are not doing X, Y and Z. I welcome the increase in the funding but it is rich of anybody who was a member of the then Government to criticise it given that when there was huge money in this country it continued to pour it in and took no responsibility for the way that money was used in communities. That is the sad reflection of where we are today.