Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 21 October 2021

Public Accounts Committee

2020 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Tusla, the Child and Family Agency - Financial Statements 2020

9:30 am

Mr. Bernard Gloster:

I assure the Deputy that this year, for the first year in many, the school completion programmes got an increase. I am certainly extremely committed to this and, as I mentioned in my opening statement, I believe the community and voluntary sector is the bedrock of communities such as Dublin north city. That is why I said I am concerned about the sustainability of some of the services. I have been out to Ballymun and Finglas and to some of the after-school clubs, and I know the Minister has been out there as well. Our service in Dublin relies critically on those and certainly, within what is in our range to give, we are very focused on building those supports, not just leaving them, as the Deputy said, to be somewhat taken for granted.