Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her reply. As the Minister said, there are 106 of these centres throughout the country, three of them in my own constituency. They are Millennium Family Resource Centre in Glengoole, Spafield Family Resource Centre in Cashel and Three Drives Family Resource Centre in Tipperary Town. They do tremendous work with scarce resources and are providing essential front-line services in deprived communities affected by austerity, poverty and exclusion. Families challenged by poverty are particularly targeted in the centres. They deal with early intervention and prevention if at all possible and provide a range of services.

My reason for asking the question was to seek the Minister's reassurance, which she has given, and to ask her, in the context of the establishment of the child and family support agency, to confirm the continuation of these centres and their central role in the new agency, to confirm her support for the centres and for continued proper and adequate funding for them, and also to seek an assurance that the centres will have a nominee on the board of the new agency.

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