Family Resource Centres
Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-03
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Emer Higgins (FG), Dublin Mid-West

I thank Senator O'Reilly for his fantastic advocacy on this issue, which I know is so important to him and his constituents. The next step is to make sure we can secure funding for the continued expansion of this scheme. The step after that would be for Cootehill, and others in this boat, to apply for any such new scheme that may come in. I suppose the exact same requirements will be looked at.
I reiterate that it is a comprehensive national application and assessment process.
It is led by Tusla and is independently verified and independently chaired. Applications are reviewed and scored against clearly defined and already published criteria. Population need, level of deprivation, child population data, existing service provision and existing service gaps are all part of that picture. The Senator clearly outlined that he feels Cootehill absolutely fits those criteria. Unfortunately, there may be plenty of other places that fit those criteria, so it is important the next application deals in particular with those-----

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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