Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to have the opportunity to raise this important matter. I thank the Minister for taking it herself. Knowing the type of pragmatic Minister she is, I believe she will have no entrenched views until she familiarises herself fully with the workings of ParentStop, which I believe is only available in Donegal. It provides free and confidential one-to-one telephone and group support to parents who need some help with parenting challenges, whether it is bedtime routine, managing behaviour, parenting skills, putting in place a parenting plan, setting boundaries, school concerns, communication breakdowns, worries about teens' substance misuse, or anything else of immediate concern to a person. It is there to offer support. It also helps with the challenges of separation and the strains that that causes for families. ParentStop can listen while people talk it out, provide information on their specific parenting concerns, and advise on the next steps. It was established in 2005 as a charitable organisation and registered as such in 2007. It offers a valuable service to parents and co-parents on matters of separation, legal matters and about children in a state of anxiety due to legal matters in their lives.

It is vital that this service is provided. ParentStop offers niche services that I can safely state can be obtained nowhere else in the country but in Donegal. Donegal should not be penalised for establishing it and ensuring that it has been extremely successful over the last 14 years. I raise it tonight because it has been told that the funding will be withdrawn. Not all of the funding comes from Tusla.

Some of it comes from the Departments of Justice and Equality and Health, while some of it comes through the bodies that deal with drugs. I have also mentioned this to the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Catherine Byrne. We must look at all of it in the round in the context of the services Tusla provides at times when families and individuals are dealing with legal matters, teenagers are struggling and there are challenges in second level schooling. They are times of great stress, anxiety and difficulty for the individuals concerned.

The Minister should deal with ParentStop in an atmosphere that is conducive to resolving this issue, not in the atmosphere of a court. I know that the legal profession in County Donegal is extremely supportive and it does not see this as taking business from it. If we had more organisations such as ParentStop throughout the country, it would result in massive savings. Therefore, I cannot understand why the funding was withdrawn. I quote directly a practising solicitor: "The courts are unable to deal with the volume of cases in the family law court and at the moment if someone has issued family law proceedings in the Letterkenny district area, (seeking access or maintenance for example), they will have to wait until at least February 2020 to be given a hearing." ParentStop was able to bridge that gap. In the vast majority of cases a final order was made by a court without any necessity for a hearing date following the party's attendance. All legal people concur with this. I hope the Minister has some good news for me.

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