Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I accept the Deputy’s point. I think we will see an improvement in co-ordination at a local level over the coming weeks with the establishment of the community response fora. There is capacity at a local level that has not been best utilised because of the lack of co-ordination over the initial few weeks. There have been small areas of overlap. There have also been people who have not been reached. That cohort is most important and is a priority at the moment.

I would urge the public to contact our local volunteer centre. There is still a lot of goodwill out there. People want to help and want to get involved. I would direct people to their local volunteer centre, if they have time and effort to give. However, I take the Deputy’s points and we will be monitoring the situation closely. As I mentioned, we have provided additional funding in some exceptional circumstances. We will be taking information from the ground up, as well as from national organisations in monitoring the situation across the country.

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