Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State made a good point.

I do a legal support clinic at the F2 Centre every fortnight and I am always amazed by the sheer use of it by the local community and the creativity of the support. People identify needs in the local community and then they do their best to professionally meet those needs. A professional was recruited there previously and paid a salary to provide a service to parents. It was a professional intervention. From a qualitative analysis, this programme would have stood up to any assessment. Naturally the group is disappointed.

The Minister of State mentioned that 52 of 500 projects were selected. There are many more in the 500. Bar the Minister of State going to negotiate for them in the budget, clearly we will have a massive need. I am at a bit of a loss as to where they go now, because there is nowhere for them to go and that worries me.