Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. As she said, family resource centres have welcoming front doors, but unfortunately we do not have that front door for families. We need a commitment. Part of the Minister of State's reply referred to inadequacies and gaps in service provision being identified through Tusla's commissioning process which is carried out at local and national level. I would like to see a copy of the commissioning process and whether Longford has been identified. If it has not, those involved are not doing their job correctly.

There is a population of 10,000. The centres in Ballymahon and Granard, Bridgeway and Lios na Gréine, do good work. They are 15 miles from each other. We want to support families. In a lot of cases, the families we want to support do not have transport. We need a centre in the local community. I do not accept we need to wait. We have already waited five years for another opportunity. During that time, a lot of voluntary organisations have tried to support families in the community without a dedicated service. It is a no-brainer. We need to step away and look at the need. I would like to see the report of the Tusla commissioning process and where a need has been identified.