Mr. Bernard Gloster:

The Deputy was dropping in and out on my feed but I got the general gist of the question, which relates to family resource centres. These are all individually commissioned centres, as the Deputy knows, with their own boards and history. The approximate spend planned for next year on the programme is approximately €23 million. The family support programme allocation increased at the end of 2019 by approximately €1.5 million and this was carried into 2020 and fully honoured.

There are family support services not in the family resource centre programme and I want to be clear about that. When we speak about them we must do so in the context of all the other community and voluntary sector agents involved in family support services. Coming to the end of this year, the family resource type of services and programmes have seen an additional allocation of €700,000. That is in the closing weeks of the year and it is specifically to support the work done and which needs to be done over the winter period in responding to the families we mentioned earlier who are experiencing pressure because of Covid-19. I hope that addresses some aspects of the question.