Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and the rest of the delegation for joining us today. I acknowledge the work done by the Minister in securing additional funding and his Department has a really broad remit that provides essential services, all of which need more resources.

I have several points to raise. Under the subhead relating to mother and baby institutions, the increase in allocations for this area are especially welcome. However, the briefing document only mentions Tuam as a site to be examined under the burials Bill, implying that only Tuam is budgeted for when there are, of course, many other known locations of potential mass graves. Will the Minister comment on that or does the budget allow for more sites to be examined? There is also reference to an enhanced model of stakeholder engagement. Given the reported unsatisfactory nature of engagement so far, will the Minister outline what the new model will look like and who is conducting the research and commemoration initiatives referred to?

Many other Deputies have raised the question of early learning and care, and there is again a welcome increase in funding for the area. The committee has discussed child poverty and there has been criticism of the national childcare scheme because it does not account for additional needs faced by disadvantaged families. One of the surprising points to learn was that the single biggest contributing factor to children being in poverty is being part of a lone-parent family. Will there be targeted supports in that regard or will there be an opportunity to address the matter? There are cases where children are not guaranteed access to proper meals and there is a pressing need for targeted programmes in that area.

The Minister's opening statement asserts that funding will support the quality of services by better enabling providers to attract and retain qualified staff in an established career structure. Will the Minister elaborate on how that would happen in practice?

The Minister referenced the funding towards implementing the White Paper to end direct provision. It is almost a year since the White Paper was published. What has been the progress in moving forward on ending direct provision since and how will the allocation of €12.5 million help achieve this?

We all expected to see more reference to dealing with gender-based violence in the statement and the documents. It is mentioned under Tusla's budget but given the necessary focus on the area since Christmas, and with the "RTÉ Investigates" documentary this week, I would have hoped for stronger prioritisation. In response to a parliamentary question last year, the Minister informed me the cost of maintaining a single refuge space is in the region of €100,000 annually. Of course we know that to meet the targets under the Istanbul Convention we would need a huge amount of funding to make a provision for that. Where is the allocation to increase the number of refuge spaces that are very desperately needed, especially in large areas of the country with absolutely no spaces whatever?