Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Daly, for taking this matter but I had hoped the Minister, Deputy Zappone, would be here to address the urgent need for a family resource centre in Erris, north Mayo. I welcome the recently announced additional family resource centre provision but, unfortunately, there is no provision for north Mayo. I have not intervened on this matter up to now because I was sure the urgent need for a family resource centre in Erris would be recognised. I am not sure if the Minister of State has been to Erris but I am sure he has heard of Belmullet which has a population of almost 8,000 people. In terms of isolation and the difficulties around access to services, it is a 154 km round trip to the county town of Castlebar and a 124 km round trip to Ballina. The primary and secondary routes connecting to those towns are prone to flooding and in need of urgent upgrade. However, that is a matter for another Minister.

The recent Social Justice Ireland report shows an increase in poverty in rural areas. There is also a poverty of access to essential services. It is not feasible for support services, such as those provided by Tusla through the family resource centres, to travel to and from Erris to meet the needs of individuals and families. That Tusla and HSE staff have to spend half their days travelling to and from the main centres is not the best use of their time and not conducive to providing quality support services to individuals and families. The reality is that families and individuals are being deprived of the life-saving and life-changing supports and services available to people living in other areas.

A family resource centre located in Erris would facilitate an early intervention and prevention approach that would assist in preventing cases escalating to the social work teams and mental health teams that are already overstretched. Following on from the closure of community development projects in 2015, there is an even more severe gap in services for the Erris community. Over the 13 year timeframe that the CDP was in existence, along with the one-to-one supports provided by it initiatives such as whole community responses to bullying, domestic violence, poor mental health, isolation and many other key issues, were developed. It also acted as a facilitator and an anchor for parenting programmes, community participation in primary care and other anti-poverty and social inclusion initiatives. The combination of family support services and community development that could be provided by a family resource centre would tackle disadvantage and address the inequalities that are preventing people from living full, healthy and self-determined lives.

Erris is a wonderful area in which to live or to visit. The deprivation statistics included in the application for a family resource centre in Erris speak to the underlying severe disadvantage when it comes to accessing services, unemployment levels, the level of lone parents and the number of people living in isolation.It speaks to all of those things. Young people with acute mental health difficulties must still travel to north Mayo CAMHS which is based in Ballina. If a young person recovering from a bereavement or something traumatic needs the support of CAMHS and other services, it is not feasible to take him or her out of school for a whole day to access those services. That is why I ask the Minister of State to reconsider the family resource centres and to put one into the Erris area as a matter of urgency. I would not ask if it were not desperately needed. I ask on behalf of the families and individuals.

Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the opportunity to respond to the issue raised by Senator Conway-Walsh. The family resource centre programme was established in 1998 and was overseen by the former Family Support Agency until the transfer of responsibility to Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, on its establishment in 2014. Until 2018, there were 109 family resource centres in the programme, seven of which are operational in County Mayo at Ballina, Castlebar, Westport, Claremorris, Ballyhaunis, Ballinrobe and Kilmovee. Family resource centres are independent voluntary organisations that deliver universal services to families in local communities based on a life-cycle approach. Centres seek to combat disadvantage and provide supports to improve family life. The family resource centre programme emphasises the involvement of communities in tackling the problems they face, working inclusively with service users and creating successful partnerships between voluntary and statutory organisations at community level.

In budget 2018, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Katherine Zappone, secured an additional €3 million for Tusla to support the family resource centre programme. The additional funding is being used to support existing family resource centres and to provide for the expansion of the programme with the inclusion of 11 new centres. Following a public application process, Tusla announced recently the 11 centres which are being included in the programme this year. I understand that applications to Tusla to join the programme were of a very high standard. The criteria considered included the size and make-up of the geographical area, the social and economic conditions in the specified area and the overall population breakdown of the area that would be serviced by the proposed centre. The criteria also considered the structure of the organisation applying to the programme, its objectives, targets, current relationships with other organisations and the inclusion of available research, community projects and needs assessments with the application. A high number of applications, 47 in total, were received by Tusla, one of which was from an organisation based in the Erris area of Mayo.

Tusla was faced with a difficult decision-making process to select 11 new centres for inclusion in the programme. It is important to emphasise that Tusla recently established an online virtual child and family support network for Erris and Ballina. Child and family support networks represent services which play a role in the lives of children and families in a given area such as statutory service providers and local voluntary and community services. The aim of these networks is to ensure that if a family presents to a service which cannot meet its needs, the service can redirect the family to another service which is more appropriate. The new online network will enable services to develop an understanding of the work of other providers in order to facilitate the provision of a more integrated service to families in the community. Tusla has advised that it also funds a full-time family support worker in the local area. The Mayo children and young people service committee also brings together representatives of State bodies and community and voluntary services who work with children and young people in the county. The committee is currently finalising a three-year plan for Mayo which will include an audit of services working with children, young people and families in Mayo, as well as a local needs analysis. Future commissioning of services by Tusla in County Mayo will take the completed local needs analysis into account, including any gaps in services wherever they may be identified. Through its prevention partnership and family support network, Tusla will continue to provide supports through the targeting of additional resources to services which will impact positively on vulnerable children and families.

I thank Senator Conway-Walsh for raising the matter. It is of key importance that the needs of children and families are met in the best way possible, in particular in areas of disadvantage. I assure the Senator that my colleague, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, will continue to support the work of family resource centres. Family support is a key priority for her.

Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein)
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I hear what the Minister of State is saying. I have worked in the middle of all of this. In the context of interagency co-operation and the work that can be done, what is needed is a family resource centre. I welcome the fact that a support worker will be in place but it is not enough. However, that is not adequate to replace the community development project and the extra family support that is needed in the area.The Minister of State will know there has been severe tragedy across that area in recent years and even in the last number of months. These services are desperately needed. I will contact the Minister, Deputy Zappone, separately but I ask the Minister of State to ask her about this.

There are exceptional needs in this area which will not be covered in the local needs analysis. There will be lives lost in three years. The quality of life in those three years for people who desperately need the services which could be provided through a family resource centre will not be improved. That really concerns me. We have all these headline figures. We need to get down to these people who are extremely vulnerable. Time is of the essence in doing so. I will write to the Minister separately to ask her to consider Erris on an exceptional needs basis. I do not want to get caught up in an audit. The deprivation figures speak for themselves. This has the backing of all of the statutory agencies, which do not do things like this lightly, because they know the need. Some of them are working in the area and people who they work with in their teams have to travel out to the Erris area. I thank the Cathaoirleach and the Minister of State, but this is just the beginning of the fight for a family resource centre in Erris.

Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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I will just reiterate the point that the Minister, Deputy Zappone, is very committed to supporting Tusla in its work, which we all acknowledge. Tusla is doing a very good job in the area of children, an area in which I have a particular interest having chaired the relevant committee previous to my current appointment. There was an additional €3 million allocated for family resource centres this year, which was very positive and which was an acknowledgement by the Government of the good work which they do and the need for them in communities. We are all in agreement with the Senator on that.

As I said in my initial reply, there were 47 applications. Only 11 were successful on this occasion. I cannot speculate on the level of funding which will we be made available in 2019 but I will sincerely be supportive and hopeful that an additional allocation will be made next year. If there is, I have no doubt that the Department will be more than willing to work with the Senator, the Mayo children and young people's services committee and the child and family support network for Erris and Ballina in order to identify the needs there and to recognise the very genuine and legitimate issue which the Senator has raised here today.