Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I support Senator Lombard and second his proposal that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine be contacted and that the Minister provide at least an extra week to allow for weather conditions.

I wish to discuss the value of family resource centres, of which there are 121 across the State. We have heard from them about the funding cuts made since 2008. In 2008 funding for the centres was €18.84 million, whereas now it is €17.37 million. However, they require €19.3 million to resource their services properly, as matters stand. Like community development projects, family resource centres experienced savage cuts in 2008 and during the years of austerity. While some of the cuts have been made up, not all of the decrease has been addressed. Family resource centres engage in at least 500,000 child and adult interactions annually. They leverage 2.9 times their annual Government funding by sourcing other funding to be used in communities. They have a proven and successful model to meet the needs of at-risk families, provide counselling, engage in community work, provide advice and training and address domestic violence and many of the other issues which cause social exclusion and isolation in communities. They help to reduce poverty and address social inclusion. We speak a great deal about crime prevention and the cost of crime, but if we fail to value the work of family resource centres, we are failing economically as well as socially. If the problems facing individuals, families and communities are not addressed, it can cause many problems down the line by way of anti-social behaviour, addiction and crime. The value of applying extra funding to family resource centres would be huge.

The family resource centre national forum also needs approximately €145,000 to keep going as a national co-ordinator. The forum is important to facilitate the exchange of learning across the family resource centres nationally, which builds capacity for the future.

We have a particular and absolute need for a family resource centre in Erris. An assessment has been made and an application was made last year, but we fell just short, albeit Tusla recognised the need. Erris is a huge distance away from any other family resource centre. Community projects have been cut and it is an area of high disadvantage. The value of having a family resource centre in Erris needs to be recognised in the budget. I look forward to seeing that happen.