Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 February 2022
571. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the amount of additional funding that was made available for family resource centres in each of the years 2019 to 2021 to enable them to pay annual increments to their staff. [9209/22]
View answerTusla, the Child and Family Agency, administers the Family Resource Centre (FRC) Programme which provides funding support to 121 FRCs across the country. My Department allocates core funding for the FRC Programme and since 2019, an additional €1.5m has been provided in funding. This has meant that funding for the years 2019, 2020 and 2021 amounted to €18 million.
Since the establishment of Tusla in 2014, the Agency has funded many organisations, mostly in the community and voluntary sector, to deliver services on its behalf under sections 56 to 59 of the Child and Family Agency Act 2013. These organisations operate independently of Tusla and are responsible for the recruitment of their employees and the terms and conditions under which they are employed. Therefore, the remuneration of these staff is a matter for these organisations as employers.
Each organisation funded under these arrangements operate independently of Tusla. Each is responsible for the recruitment of employees and the terms and conditions under which individuals are employed. Section 56(14) of the Act of 2013 stipulates that ‘an arrangement under this section shall not give rise to an employment relationship between a service provider, its employees or agents on the one hand and the Agency on the other’.
