Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)

I thank the Minister of State for her substantial contribution and recognition of Cabra, and her personal awareness of how change-positive the family resource centres can be for a community, particularly communities that, of their own volition, recognise the need for them. Cabra is an area with such an incredible history. The GAA team there is a real focal point for the community. There is generational poverty that can only be confronted through proper State intervention and a collation of services. It is exactly as the Minister of State describes. It is something which the communities, of their own volition, have mobilised for and about which they have lobbied me and other public representatives for the area to make the case. I am delighted to be able to do so today. I know the opening of five new family resource centres will be a competitive application. I am certainly not trying to lobby any more than using my position as a public representative for an area to give a voice.

I ask that when this consideration is being made, the Department looks at the statistics. The deprivation level in Cabra is really pronounced. It is more than probably exists in many other parts of the country. Because Cabra is around 2 km away from the city centre, it is often lost in conversations. When we talk about crime in the city centre, we are more likely to focus on the parts we pass through, like O'Connell Street. Cabra is a place that has experienced all the hardship of deprivation, poverty and social exclusion, but it has not received the same level of public attention, probably as a consequence of public representatives who have not given enough voice to it. We want that to be recognised. We want the request for a family resource centre to be based in evidence, awareness and acknowledgement that there is a community here looking to step up and see itself as part of that State infrastructure, to confront the challenges which it recognises but for which also it sees the solutions.

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