Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. He said the Department's work in this area is administered by Tusla. There are other trains of funding but the centres do not have the resources to try to pull money from each and every angle. I cannot stress strongly enough that the core funding must be increased. It is as simple as that. That will give the resource centres the ability to fully function. The Minister of State is well aware of the issues. We see a lot of instances in this country where something is working right but, if it breaks down, there is no support and then those services are lost. He knows that as well as I do. We have seen how beneficial these centres are in the communities they serve. If we are going on cost alone, I mentioned a figure of €1.3 million. That is a massive saving to the State but we would not look it as just that. The €1.3 million represents four people who did not go into State care and instead could live a normal life with the support of the resource centre in question.

I appeal to the Minister of State to keep this matter front and centre. I will revisit it in due course to see whether we can find any way of increasing the provision. If we lose these services, we will be in deep trouble. We have the most amazing people in these centres who are fully committed to this work. I have met most of them, from management through to the various staff. The welcome one gets comes with a cup of tea or coffee and a scone when one goes in and sits down to meet the people involved. The atmosphere there is electric and, at times, mesmerising. People do not realise how good a service it is until it is gone. That is putting it very politely. I appeal to the Minister of State to keep this issue front and centre. I will follow up on it with parliamentary questions to see whether we can build on what is something special. Instead of letting it wither, let us try to make it grow.

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