Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy knows, the legislation is going through the House. I expect the agency to be established in January following the successful enactment of the Child and Family Agency Bill, which we are currently considering. I thank Deputies Ó Caoláin and Troy for their support for the passage of that legislation. I know everybody is committed to ensuring the agency works effectively. Despite the current economic situation, the budget, including the HSE element of the budget which has been maintained, will enable quality services to go ahead. As the Deputy knows, savings for my Department and every other Department were earmarked in the comprehensive review of expenditure. While that remains the situation, I have managed to secure a significant scaling-back on that. For example, an extra €1 million was allocated for youth services in the budget. I believe that will make a quality difference and will ensure not only that the reductions will be few in number, but also that they will be relatively minor. I would prefer if there was no reduction in the youth budget, but there has been a significant scaling-back on the reductions that were initially proposed.

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