A Donegal Senator has stated that the hundreds and hundreds of Donegal families who have benefitted from the ParentStop service over the last 13 years, cannot afford to lose it.
Senator Pádraig Mac Lochlainn was appealing to the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Katherine Zappone directly during a special debate on the matter in the Seanad today.
ParentStop supported over 400 Donegal families last year and has announced that it will have to close its doors at the end of this year, due to an ongoing lack of secure funding resources for the service.
Senator Mac Lochlainn said: “This is a vital service for so many families across the county. Established in 2005 from within the community of Donegal and funded from 2007 to date, the team at ParentStop have been a safe space for parents struggling with their responsibilities for a variety of reasons. They are a free and voluntary service operated on a not for profit basis.
“It is a self-referral service for families but a range of professionals and officials have referred struggling families to the service including teachers, counsellors, health care and social care professionals as well as family court judges.
For years now, they have struggled to find the necessary funding from government agencies to sustain what has been a growing service and they have been forced into this announcement that they will have to close their doors”.
“Today I appealed to Minister Zappone to meet with the board of ParentStop and to work with the HSE and other government departments and agencies to find a sustainable funding solution that will keep the doors open. I am pleased that the Minister has confirmed that she will meet the board of ParentStop later this month and that Tusla and the HSE are working on a joint funding proposal.
“It is critical now that these efforts succeed and that the hundreds of Donegal families who rely on ParentStop are not abandoned by the state”.