In budget 2025 funding was allocated for five additional family resource centres, FRCs. I was one of those involved in putting a management team together to put forward a proposal and an application from Longford. We advocated here a number of weeks ago for funding for additional FRCs in budget 2026. This was granted and there is funding in place for ten additional FRCs throughout the country. We need an FRC in Longford. We hit the top in every one of the matrices, from truancy rates to referrals to Tusla. A team from all the agencies in the county put together an assessment of needs project to highlight that need. It is imperative that Longford is on that list. Longford needs its FRC.

As the Deputy knows, there was a comprehensive national application process in August 2025. The Minister, Deputy Foley, announced that five new FRCs will open in Dublin, Galway, Kildare, Louth and Monaghan. The national application and assessment process was led by Tusla and independently chaired by a representative of the University of Limerick. Longford FRC steering group was an applicant in the most recent application process. Those applicants remain under active consideration for further expansion of the FRC programme.

The good news is that budget 2026 honours the programme for Government commitment to increase funding and expand the capacity and network of family resource centres. The funding secured for a further ten resource centres will bring the overall network to 136. They have not been announced yet, so I take on board the Deputy's representations.