Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chairperson and the Minister of State. My request is quite simple. It is in the statement the Acting Chairperson just read out, that is, the provision of funding for a family resource centre in Longford town, specifically €180,000 for a senior staff member and two support staff to provide a resource centre for a town with a population of 10,000. That is not there at present.

One might ask why Longford should have a resource centre. I will reference a document published only late last year, the Longford Community Safety Plan 2022-2024. All agencies in the town came together, including the local authority, the Garda and the business community, to put together proposals to improve and support our community. Over 19.5% of the population of Longford town is from overseas and is not of Irish nationality. There are higher than average levels of unemployment and people not going to further education. The need is there.

I will reference a few statements that came from the public consultation that took place among all of the people in Longford. I was at a number of the consultations and the Comhairle na nÓg group meeting with the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, where people highlighted their concern and the need for this service. There needs to be an increase in resources for family support throughout the county, focused on the whole family and not just children. A drop-in centre is needed in Longford town to make it easy for people to get the services they need, such as addiction services, counselling and help with forms. There are the examples of Bridgeway and Lios Na Gréine in Ballymahon and Granard, respectively, where there are great services. We do not have this service in Longford town.

As I said, there is a population of 10,000 people without that service. One of the main objectives and probably the number one objective of the community safety partnership plan is highlighting the need for that centre in our county town to address a lot of the social issues.I do not think it is too much of an ask for the funding to be put in place to give us the services that we need in our town. We have a fantastic service in Longford Women's Link that provides domestic violence support. It is located just 400 m away from where we have a site and a building that is fully functional and available to house a family resource centre. No capital expenditure will be needed. It is there. We have a fantastic service with Longford Women's Link with regard to child care and domestic violence support.

We have no support services for families with autism. I know the Minister of State is working hard on developing a strategy to provide these services. The Oireachtas committee, of which I am a member, is also doing so. It is a simple ask. We have a building that will incur no capital expenditure, fully fitted out and fully furnished. We just need the sanction from Tusla.

I know the reply I will probably get from the Department listing out all funding that has been provided. However, in 2022 additional funding of €6 million was allocated to enable Tusla to increase supports to the wider community and voluntary sector. That does not include Longford town and it needs to. The facts and figures are there to be seen from the census of the need that we have. I ask that this be prioritised immediately. I know there is not an open call for the centres at present. We submitted an application back in 2018 and were unsuccessful. I do not think a proper application was submitted at the time. The fact that this building was available but was not part of the application would have been one of the main reasons we were unsuccessful. We have the building and it is available. We need the sanction to be put in place and we would have a centre up and running before the summertime. We have a voluntary committee of people who are willing to work and support that.