Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister's reasonably positive response and acknowledge her response to my previous correspondence. However, there is uncertainty here because the private funding from the proceeds of the sale of the Cottage Home on Tivoli Road is running out. There are six qualified staff here and they are, frankly, saving the State a great deal of money. This is the important point about early intervention. It is estimated that every child who has to go into State or residential care will cost the State €200,000 a year. Here we have a service with six qualified staff, which has dealt with over 150 young people in its few years of existence, keeping many of them out of residential care and saving the State money, and it is asking for what is really a pittance.

They need certainty as it is very difficult without it, for them and the service users they support. They are hoping for an assurance that this small amount of money will be made available to secure the future of the service.

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