Family Resource Centres Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-03 ============================================================ Emer Higgins (FG), Dublin Mid-West I thank Senator O'Reilly for raising this issue, which I know is very close to his heart as a man from Cootehill. This is something that he sees on the ground day in and day out and he fully understands the need here. It is great to see such cross-party co-operation in the interests of local democracy and shared local community. I thank Senator Gallagher for his comments on the matter. I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister, Norma Foley. She informed me earlier today that she had met both Senators and the fantastic volunteers involved in this fantastic local initiative. It is great to hear that Councillor Carmel Brady is involved in the campaign. Senator O'Reilly put it very well when he spoke about the deprivation index of the area and how great a need there was. The survey results that have been gone through are backing up what the Senator said. It is encouraging to hear about a suitable venue and support on the ground from local agencies. In terms of the expansion of the family resource centre programme, this is the latest in a number of very positive developments for the programme over the last few years. There is a programme for Government commitment to increase funding and to expand the capacity and network of family resource centres. This year's budget honours that commitment, with funding secured for a further ten family resource centres. This will bring the family resource centre membership up to 136 this year. That expansion follows the increase in the programme by five members last year, when funding was secured as part of the 2025 budget. This was the first such expansion since 2018. The programme expanded by five last year and 15 this year. The commissioning of new family resource centres is an operational matter for Tusla, the Child and Family Agency. It is responsible for the day-to-day administration of the family resource centre programme. To be clear, neither the Minister nor the Department have had any involvement in the assessment process for new members of the family resource centre programme or in selecting new programme members, and therefore cannot comment on any particular application. A comprehensive national application and assessment process was undertaken in 2025, which was led by Tusla and independently chaired by a representative of the University of Limerick. All applications were reviewed and scored against clearly defined and published criteria, including population need, level of deprivation, child population data, existing service provision and existing service gaps. Decisions on the successful services were made by the assessment panel. This process was outlined in the Tusla outcome letters that issued to all applicants. A total of 49 organisations applied for membership of the family resource centre programme, following an open call from Tusla for applications to join the programme. This shows a strong level of interest in communities around the country in having family resource centres as part of their community infrastructure. I understand that Tusla was very impressed with the level of interest in joining the programme, and with the quality of the applications received. Regrettably, funding only allowed for 15 new members to be selected from the 49 organisations that applied, leaving 34 applications unsuccessful. I thank those organisations for their interest in joining the programme and for the important work they continue to do day in and day out. The benefits of community-based services such as family resource centres cannot be overstated. Many of us will have witnessed first-hand the impacts that family resource centres have on the communities they operate in and the communities and families they support. They engage with vulnerable families, offer services to individuals across the whole life cycle from early years to senior citizens and, crucially, foster a positive and inclusive community spirit. The range of services they provide can be extensive, determined by the needs of the relevant communities. It is particularly important to note that many services are delivered at no cost or low cost to families, who otherwise might not be able to access them. Also, by availing of funding schemes operated by other Government Departments and agencies, there is great potential for family resource centres to grow their scope and reach, and further embed themselves in their communities, and that is what we wish to do in government. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-03-03/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:42+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-03-03