Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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1914. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality to award optimum core funding of €240,000 for all 121 family resource centres, to enable each centre to have three core staff on public sector aligned scales plus operating costs; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45196/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I am very appreciative of the work carried out by Family Resource Centres around the country, and have seen first-hand the benefits to local communities of the range of services offered by Family Resource Centres. I also acknowledge that there is a Programme for Government commitment to work to increase funding and expand the capacity and network of Family Resource Centres over the lifetime of this Government.

Recent developments in respect of the Family Resource Centre Programme include my Department’s securing of additional funding of €800,000 in Budget 2025, to allow for an expansion of the FRC Programme from 121 members to 126 members. In this context we have recently welcomed five new members to the Programme, and I wish the various services well as they embark on this new chapter.

In April 2024 my predecessor announced a ‘funding equalisation scheme’, having secured €1.5 million in additional Family Resource Centre core funding. This resulted in all centres receiving at least €160,000 in core funding from 2025 onwards. The measure benefitted 54 FRCs around the country.

The core funding allocation is standardised across the Family Resource Centre Programme, and is intended to support a dedicated cohort of staff and to contribute towards a Centre’s operational costs. This allows for the delivery of essential family support services, in line with Tusla’s national priorities.

It is important to note that funding from my Department represents only a portion of the total funding available to Family Resource Centres nationally. The Family Resource Centre Programme is a community development programme that is financially supported by many State agencies in a partnership approach. Centres may draw on various sources of funding provided by other Government Departments, agencies and private sources. I would encourage every centre to engage with these sources and explore all funding options.