James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I remind the Deputy that from 2011 to 2014, this country started on a recovery from the greatest financial crisis it had ever endured, and for Ireland to regain its financial sovereignty, it was necessary to reduce funding for virtually all services. Consequently, in 2014 it was a reflection of the Government's commitment to this area that it was able to maintain the funding for 2014 into 2015. As I stated, Tusla will draw up its own business plan which it will forward to me. However, I have pointed out that it values this service highly and the programmes delivered by it are myriad. They include child contact centres, family conferencing, patient support groups, child care providers, after-school clubs, homework clubs, study clubs, literacy programmes, preschools, playschools, breakfast clubs, lunch clubs, out-of-school initiatives including summer camps and transition programmes, Rainbows programmes, counselling, family fun days, lone parents groups, parent and toddler groups, youth groups including no-name clubs and youth cafés, intergenerational groups, fathers groups including father and son groups and supervised access initiatives, library and book-lending services, substance abuse support groups and school uniform exchanges, to mention just some programmes. This is an important programme and resource. There are 109 such centres nationwide and Tusla values them highly, as do I.

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