Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)

Deansrath Family Centre has been serving children and families in Clondalkin and beyond for more than 20 years. It is located in an area of ongoing socioeconomic disadvantage, characterised by high levels of unemployment and poverty, a lot of single-parent households and lower than average levels of education. The centre has evolved over time to cater for these needs and has expanded from solely providing childcare to delivering a range of services under the general headings of prevention and early intervention. It has built up a lot of experience in identifying needs in families early and providing co-ordinated support before problems become more complex. It is the living epitome of the research done in the Highscope/Perry Preschool Project, which showed that for every €1 invested there is a €7 return. The centre focuses on targeted responses at an early stage and is doing a good job.

Families can access a range of services and supports alongside the early childhood care and education programme, which caters for children, including those with special educational needs. There are parenting programmes, child therapeutic interventions and a range of wraparound supports which ensure that families receive appropriate supports to help to improve outcomes. The centre is not just totting up figures; it is doing something of value and adding value to the community. It has grown substantially over a 20-year period. It is a victim of its own success in one sense. It has consistently adapted its response to the increasing socioeconomic challenges. A greater number of parents have benefited year on year from the centre because of the excellent levels of care it offers and the education, counselling and support that are available for children. The key challenge now is that it has insufficient physical space to accommodate the increased number of families going to the centre, in a single location. It has had to spread out and that involves long walks so it urgently needs adequate premises to extend service provision. Although it does a good job, the service is fragmented.

The centre put in place a plan to enable it to maintain a consistent level of support and increased on-site service provision going forward. South Dublin County Council has provided land for a new centre in the St. Cuthbert's Park area. The park has been separately upgraded by South Dublin County Council. It is a fantastic resource on which to locate such a centre. The centre has been designed to accommodate needs well into the future. At 500 sq m, it would be three times the size of the existing premises and would provide an excellent amount of space to facilitate the delivery of supports and enhance the supports already provided. It would get rid of the need for families and staff to travel to and from other venues. In some cases, these families do not have cars and the bus service is not reliable. It is a long walk. The centre would have additional supports for early years care, family support, staff rooms and a multipurpose recreation and family-focused space. It is a fantastic plan for a one-stop shop of supports. There would be a large early years facility, dedicated rooms, including parent and baby, child and parent, and teenager rooms, therapy rooms, family-staff consultation rooms, family spaces and child cooking facilities and communal areas where families with young children can meet and connect with others. There would be stuff like CoderDojo, an academy space, a staff training room, a parent outdoor space and an outdoor playground.

The centre has written to various Departments looking for funding. That is why I originally put this question to the Department of the Taoiseach. I believe channels of funding may be available through various Departments, but there is no one-size-fits-all scenario. The centre has not been able to get access to someone who will tell the centre how to get the various channels together to provide the funds for the centre. Is the Minister of State in a position to identify credible channels of funding today?

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