Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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55. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the degree to which her Department continues to improve the quality and availability of services for children and young persons, with the objective of ensuring that a particular emphasis is placed on providing adequate support for families at risk; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43736/17]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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The Deputy is aware of my wish to improve the quality and availability of services for children and young persons, with the objective of ensuring that a particular emphasis is placed on providing adequate support for families at risk. I am very pleased that the €73m package announced in Budget 2018 enables us to continue investing in our children and young people and secures much- needed additional resources for Tusla, the Child and Family Agency and provides a full second year of the ECCE free pre-school scheme, with a heavy emphasis on quality.

Tusla receives a 5.7% increase of €40.6m for 2018, higher than the €37m increase provided in 2017. The extra funding will be used to progress a number of key priorities including the introduction of mandatory reporting under Children First, addressing gaps in out of hours services and further investing in Family Resource Centres that deliver services to families in disadvantaged areas across the country. The additional investment will allow Tusla to recruit over 300 staff to respond to areas of identified risk and to meet increased demand for services. This includes resources for responding to expected increases in referrals following the introduction of mandatory reporting; management of unallocated cases and developing aftercare services. It will also allow for improvements in Tusla’s ICT systems and overall organisational structures, including governance.

Budget 2018 represents another significant step in ensuring access to high quality, affordable early years care and education. From September 2018 all children will be entitled to a full two years of the ECCE scheme or free preschool, as it has become known. This further enhancement delivers fully on a commitment in the Programme for a Partnership Government that is good for children, families and Early Years providers. I also announced investment to continue the childcare affordability measures introduced last month that are already benefitting 45,000 children, with 24,000 of these registered so far for the universal under-3 scheme, and 21,000 registered for the targeted schemes. The additional funding will ensure that the door remains open for further children and families to register and benefit from these subsidies throughout 2018.