Jan O'Sullivan
Ceist:57 Ms O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the progress made to date in implementing the report of the Commission of the Family; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15021/00]
Written Answers. - Commission on the Family.
The final report of the Commission on the Family Strengthening Families for Life was published by the Government in July 1998 and contains a comprehensive analysis of the issues affecting families in Ireland and wide-ranging recommendations across several policy areas. The Government is committed to adopting a families first approach by putting the family at the centre of all its policies. The family affairs unit established in my Department has a function to pursue the findings in the commission's report following their consideration by the Government.
Government priorities for the development of family policy and services have brought about significant progress in areas highlighted by the Commission on the Family. Considerable extra resources, this year amounting to some £10 million, have been provided for the development of family services in my Department. Major improvements include a record £3.75 million this year for voluntary organisations providing marriage and child counselling services and bereavement counselling and support services – this is more than four times the amount provided in 1997; a nationwide family mediation service, now available in ten centres around the country, is in place as promised in An Action Programme for the Millennium. I now plan to establish the service on a statutory basis; some 64 centres are in receipt of funding or have approval in principle to join the family and community services resource centre programme for which some £3 million has been allocated this year – the target is 100 centres over the coming years; and I have introduced a families research programme to help shape the development of family policy and ser vices in the future and a feasibility study into a national longitudinal study of children in Ireland is to be undertaken by my Department jointly with the Department of Health and Children.
Family services projects providing high quality information about the range of supports available to families from State agencies and the community and voluntary sector with a particular emphasis on services available locally are being piloted in three local offices of my Department – Cork, Waterford and Finglas. The Government has allocated £12 million in the national development plan for the progressive expansion of the successful elements of the pilot over the period 2000-06.
More than 1,000 people from local voluntary groups that work with families have attended family service information fora which I have held throughout the country. The fora provide an opportunity to discuss the findings of the Commission on the Family and the needs of local communities in supporting families.
Government priorities to radically improve provision for pensioners, carers and dependent spouses and children in households on low incomes address areas highlighted by the commission in its report. The £428 million budget package for social welfare increases this year is an innovative package to improve the position of those who are most vulnerable in society.
My colleagues in Government are progressing a number of significant pro-families policy issues in their own areas of responsibility. The Minister for Education and Science has initiatives under-way in relation to early education, investment in primary level schools and to tackle educational disadvantage. The Minister for Health and Children is advancing a national children's strategy. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform was responsible for introducing the Parental Leave Act in December 1998 and £250 million has been provided in the national development plan for child care initiatives. In the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness the Government and social partners are committed to support family life, offer choices for families and equal opportunities for both men and women to play an active caring role in families. This Government is committed to continued progress in this important area.