Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is obvious how emotionally engaged Deputy Dessie Ellis is on this matter. I do not mean to be patronising, but it is really lovely to see. I am not refusing anybody's help. The first thing my Department does is give money for food, which we gladly give. We already know and appreciate the impact it has and that will not change. The second thing we do is provide money through community employment schemes. We have not reduced it either. If anybody wants to approach us on new initiatives or move places, that is certainly something at which we can look.

The crux of the matter is that for some reason Dublin City Council and the education and training board have decided to stop funding what they have been funding for 18 years, with no explanation and for no obvious reason. I am not shirking my responsibilities and will gladly go with the Deputy and organise a meeting. That is not a problem, but the question has to be asked as to why the task force saw fit to stop doing something in which they saw value for 18 years? The only thing I can do in the short term is to genuinely encourage those involved through the school completion programme to apply for the exceptional needs money where there are cases where SCP co-ordinators help in schools. If I can assist in that way, I will gladly do so, but the real elephant in the room is why an organisation that is funded by the State through the Department of Health saw value in doing something for 18 years and now no longer sees the value in it. It needs to be made responsible to at least answer to us why it has stopped providing the service, what it expects the people who were going to be employed to do. It needs to answer serious questions about why it saw fit to stop funding the service, what it will use the funding for in the future if it will not use it for the seven schools in Ballymun, but, within in my personal remit, they will continue to be supplied with food. That is a given. If Deputies Dessie Ellis and Noel Rock could work together to make sure the meeting that was scheduled to happen today will happen in the next couple of days and an application is made to the SCP, we will look at it on its merits, but it has to be reflective of the practice, goodwill and positive outcomes achieved in the seven schools in Ballymun. The Deputies know that I grew up there and attended one of the schools years ago.

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