Vol. 477 No. 5
125 Mr. N. Ahern asked the Minister for Equality and Law Reform the number of groups and the amounts being given to men's groups catering as support groups for seperated fathers and husbands; the number of applications per year which are received from such groups; and if there has been a policy decision in relation to support for such groups. [9896/97]
There is no provision in my Department's Estimates for the funding of organisations which act as support groups for seperated persons, male or female. My Department provides grant-aid in support of voluntary organisations who provide marriage counselling and certain child counselling services. For the purposes of this scheme, marriage counselling is defined as the counselling of couples where the couple want to stay in the marriage and need help to work through their problems, or where the marriage has broken down and the couple need help in facing up to their reality and in dealing with the consequences of marriage breakdown.
