Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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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?

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I am familiar with the family resource centres the Deputy spoke about in my constituency. They are a valuable gem in any community. They take a holistic approach. They think of every demographic in a family and are a huge resource to have in an area.

The building blocks extension grant scheme was launched in late 2024, and successful applicants are working with the Department in delivering their projects. An application for funding under the scheme was received from Deansrath Family Centre and subsequently that application was deemed ineligible on the basis that the proposed project did not fall within the scope of the building blocks construction strand, due to the value of the project being significantly in excess of the allowed maximum.

As announced in the context of budget 2026, €36 million will be available next year for early learning and childcare capital programmes. This will include acquisitions of new buildings through the State-led early learning and childcare programme, investment in expansion of existing early learning and childcare operators through the building blocks scheme and a number of quality initiatives, including supports for childminders. The Department is currently examining options for future building blocks schemes and the Minister expects to announce details of that in early 2026. The family resource centre programme is a community development programme that is financially supported by many State agencies in a partnership approach. The programme for Government commits to increasing funding and expanding the capacity and network of family resource centres over the Government's term, given the important role these centres play in local communities.

Recent developments in respect of the family resource centre programme include the Department’s securing of additional funding of €800,000 in budget 2025, to allow for an expansion of the programme from 121 members to 126. In this context, we have recently welcomed five new members to the programme. Additionally, neither the Department or Tusla currently have capital funding to support the building of new or refurbishment or extension of existing family resource centres. Tusla does not have a dedicated budget for capital or building works for third-party organisations, such as family resource centres. This is the situation where these third-party organisations are members of the national family resource centre programme, or an organisation, such as Deansrath Family Resource Centre, which is not a programme member and separately funded. I hope that answers the Deputy's question in some way. It may not be favourable, but it in some way answers it.

Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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It is partially answered but the Departments still does not have the big picture because those behind the centre need funding to build a model of excellence in what will be a first of its kind family and early childhood centre. It will be the first whole-of-government strategy for babies, young children and their families, which is in the State's long-term programme. So far, their vision has been enabled through the land disposal agreement with South Dublin County Council, a bequest of €200,000 from a deceased chairperson of the board of management and some fundraising, including support by the architect who continued to work pro bono to secure the planning permission, which has been secured. It is a fantastic plan but it only remains a plan until funding is provided.

Page 147 of the National Development Plan 2021-2030 states that a funding route needs to be found for building like this, which epitomises the first five early childhood and family centres. The build cost was estimated at €4 million last year. They have been able to indicate that they would get some funding. They were informed that the building block strand 2 extension fund has a maximum grant of €650,000 for an individual organisation. That leaves a huge deficit. The services at Deansrath are resourced through service level agreements largely with Tusla, but also through the HSE and Pobal early years funding. The services are spread across quite a number of buildings. They need to find out where they can get that several million euro. While applying to one channel is welcome, I would like the Minister of State to pass on her colleagues the need to create a pathway because there are similar groups around the country who have similar problems. Can the Government identify a pathway where they can apply for the funding through various Departments and channels because of the multifaceted aspect of the work? They are coming up against a brick wall. They need help from Government sources. I would appreciate if they could get that.

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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In my limited knowledge on the funding streams that are available to the centres I know in my constituency, the model is that there is a maximum of what the Department can fund towards it. Any of the projects I am aware of they have had to source other funds. In the Border region, we have had the opportunity to source PEACE and local authority funding. There has always been a jigsaw approach to it to have that overall figure that the Deputy referenced. Was it €4 million?

Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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That was last year. It has probably gone up slightly.

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I appreciate the request for a pathway to be put in place whereby other agencies can contribute to the overall cost. The Deputy can be sure I will reflect that to the Minister. I thank him again for raising this important issue. It is a priority for the Minister and the Government. The programme for Government commits for the first time to providing capital investment to build and purchase State-owned early learning and childcare facilities to create additional capacity in areas where unmet needs exist. State ownership of facilities is a substantial and significant development and offers the potential for much greater scope to influence the nature and volume of provision available and to ensure better alignments with estimated demand. This work will be supported through our capital investment under the revised national development plan. As part of the recent NDP review, published in July this year, the allocation for the Department has increased to €795 million over the next five years. This increased funding will be used in part to provide additional early learning and childcare places through future capital programmes, including potentially operating a further scheme similar to building blocks to support the expansion of provision by existing operators as well as implementing the commitment to capital investment in State-owned facilities. Once details of the future capital schemes are finalised, the Minister will communicate them with the sector. I will reflect the Deputy's request in finding that multiagency approach to funding projects at the scale he referenced.

Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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Will the Minister of State ask the Minister to try to give me a written response on that?

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I will, of course.