Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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40. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if the terms of reference have been drawn up for a working group (details supplied); if so, if she will provide a copy of same; the members of the working group; the number of times it has met; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18899/18]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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I am committed to supporting and promoting the development, welfare and protection of children, and to help families be the best that they can be.

I want to see every child maintaining positive contact with both of their parents, whatever their circumstances. For some children, it is in their interest that this contact happens in a supervised, neutral, child friendly venue.

The evaluation report on Family Child Contact Centres, to which the Deputy refers, recommended an integrated response by my Department and the Department of Justice and Equality. It is my belief that this is the best approach to progress the recommendations.

I am pleased to advise that officials from my Department have come together with colleagues in the Department of Justice and Equality to jointly look at the implementation of the recommendations of the report.

It was agreed that my Department will draft the Terms of Reference for the Working Group, in consultation with the Department of Justice and Equality. We expect to advance this matter shortly.

In preparation for the work of the Group, officials in my Department have carried out a scoping exercise to establish both the demand for these services, and also the current provision of family contact services.

To date this has included:

- a review of evaluations and recommendations relating to family contact services;

- a comparison of the family contact services available internationally;

- a review of the services currently offered at Family Resource Centres;

- the collation of information from other service providers; and

- consultation with individuals who are/have been working directly in family contact services.

I am confident that the inter-departmental group is the best approach to look at how a family contact centre service will work for families in this country.

As I said at my recent meeting with Time4Us, a Galway organisation providing family contact services, the group has the potential to develop a robust model which could be used by many other services.