Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I accept the Minister's indication that this is not a final decision. However, Tusla's analysis is a little unfair. There is much happening in communities across Dublin. If I am honest, this case mirrors some of that and there is local knowledge and autonomy that has existed for ten, 20 or 30 years in the community. There are strong advocates and community workers. People who have dedicated their entire lives to the communities they serve. If we are to think that they should not, in a sense, serve beyond the locality of the F2 building, we must look at whether resources should be put into other family resource centres in different communities. It sounds like Tusla was referring to the fact that this organisation does not meet all the needs in the wider Dublin 8 area. It is a conversation worth having but it should not happen on the back of a community-based initiative being ripped out of the heart of Fatima. There are requirements in communities where we need extra family support, including either agencies or workers.

On the idea of a satellite programme for parents, I know the community and have worked in the canal communities. Travelling beyond Fatima or Dolphin House might not seem like a big task to some people but it is to many parents who have a short amount of time in the day and who may have very chaotic lives. Having the F2 Centre providing a family resource worker and service is crucial to these parents. We need to shift the conversation between now and whenever a decision is made to how we can ensure all communities will have family resource services within their communities. It is not that we need a more centralised service that everybody will have to travel to. That removes the local community knowledge and the essence of what is community development and work. It is about being able to reach out in a community. Satellite programmes do not have individuals who have lived and worked in those communities and who can engage with some of the hardest to reach families in those communities of Dolphin House, Dublin 8 and the surrounding areas. Centralising this with Tusla having a satellite programme would remove a bridge that exists between the communities that are hardest to reach and Tusla as an agency that is trying to provide a service. It is why the workers in Fatima are crucial to keeping that connection between State and community open.

It feels that there is a bit of a fight currently to ensure that some of the State agencies continue to acknowledge the relevance, hard work and value of community projects in particular areas. I do not want that pull that we feel is happening in many of those communities to continue.