Seán Ryan
Question:81 Mr. S. Ryan asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if she will make a statement on the work to date of the Family Mediation Service. [12062/04]
View answerWednesday, 28 April 2004
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The Family Mediation Service is a free, professional, confidential service that enables couples who have decided to separate to reach agreement on all issues related to their separation. It assists couples to address the issues on which they need to make decisions, including post-separation living arrangements, finances and parenting arrangements to enable children to have an ongoing relationship with each parent. The benefits of family mediation as a non-adversarial approach to resolving the issues that arise on separation are increasingly being recognised worldwide.
Over the past number of years there has been a significant expansion of the Family Mediation Service to meet a growing need for its service. It is now available in 14 centres throughout the country; this includes two new centres, which opened last year, in Sligo and in Waterford city.
One of the key issues raised by participants at the series of regional fora on the family, which I hosted around the country last year, were the benefits of this service for families and the need for additional centres. In response to this, I made additional funds available to the Family Support Agency in budget 2004 to allow for a further two Family Mediation Service offices to be opened this year. One of these will be in the north west, expanding the availability of the service in that region, and one in the midlands.
There has been a dramatic increase in the number of couples seeking mediation, as the benefits of mediation become more widely known. Last year the service helped over 1,403 couples which compares with the figure of 250 a year who used the service from 1986 up to the end of 1997, before its nationwide expansion. I pay tribute to the professionalism and hard work of the family mediators who have made a significant contribution to the promotion of the service over the years.
In May of last year I took the development of the service one step further by establishing the Family Support Agency, which will provide a solid and secure base from which this important family service can grow and develop in the future. The Family Support Agency brings together the programmes and family support services formerly administered directly by my Department. These include services to support families in times of difficulties, including the Family Mediation Service, support for voluntary organisations providing counselling and other family supports and a family resource centre programme, which supports and develops local communities. The Family Support Agency is responsible this year for a budget of over €20 million for the provision and development of its services.