Minister Foley meets Home Visiting practitioners in Tralee to mark National Home Visiting Day 2025
- Published on: 15 October 2025
- Last updated on: 15 October 2025
Minister for Children, Disability and Equality, Norma Foley has met Home Visiting practitioners in Tralee to celebrate National Home Visiting Day 2025.
Home visiting programmes provide evidence-based, in-home support to parents from pregnancy through early childhood, focusing on child health, educational development, and preventing abuse and neglect.
Families get home visits up to twice a week as part of tailored two year programmes to improve parenting skills, child health, and community connections.
Programmes across the country are hosting local events this week to celebrate their work with families and communities to mark National Home Visiting Day on Wednesday October 15th.
Minister Foley met home visiting staff working in the Community Families Home Visiting Programme in Tralee to celebrate National Home Visiting Day 2025.
She said:
‘It is an honour to meet the Home Visiting practitioners who are delivering such real change for families in their own homes. The earliest help is the most impactful for these families. Being there to support parents at such a pivotal time, when they are expecting a baby, or their baby is very young, in their own homes, is so important.’
‘Home Visitors are highly skilled in developing the trusting relationships that are necessary to support parents, in their own homes, when they need it. I’m heartened to see the integration of the support between Tusla and HSE colleagues in the Community Families programme in Tralee.’
Tusla established the National Home Visiting Programme in 2024 with a budget of €10 million between 2024 and 2028. Since then, home visiting services have been developed and expanded across sixteen local programmes that will support an additional 800 families at full capacity. This work is helping to build a more consistent, coordinated, and evidence-based approach nationwide and laying the groundwork for a sustainable national home visiting service that supports families from pregnancy through to early childhood.
Tusla appointed a National Home Visiting Manager and Data Quality Officer last year to oversee the programme, ensure consistent service delivery, and collect data for future expansion.
A national event will take place at the National College of Ireland, on Wednesday 15th to mark Home Visiting Day. This year’s theme, “Where Connections Build Community,” will highlight the important role of home visiting in strengthening family bonds and building supportive local networks that help children thrive from the earliest stages of life. The event will also mark the important work done by Home Visitors across the country.
ENDS
Notes to editors
- Home visiting programmes in Ireland provide support to expecting parents and families with young children, focusing on child health, educational development, and preventing abuse and neglect. Funded by the HSE and Tusla, programmes like Preparing for Life, Lifestart, Parent Child+, and Community Families operate in various regions. These programs typically last two years or more, with visit frequencies ranging from twice weekly to monthly, tailored to family needs. They aim to improve parenting skills, child health, and community connections.
- Home visiting programmes provide evidence-based, in-home support to parents from pregnancy through early childhood.
- There are currently 16 local home visiting programmes funded and supported through Tusla’s National Home Visiting Programme, operating in partnership with 38 organisations nationwide. Funding for the programme in 2024 was €5,341,559 and funders of Home Visiting include Tusla (local Tusla area commissioning, ABC Programme, Children’s Fund, CYPSC), HSE, philanthropic grants and private corporate donors, with Tusla providing 83% of funding to Home Visiting in 2024.
- The Tusla National Home Visiting Programme was established in 2024 under Action 18 of the Children’s Fund, a Government commitment to honour the memory of children who died in Mother and Baby & County Home Institutions by supporting children who experience disadvantage today.
- The Children’s Fund allocated up to €10 million between 2024 and 2028 to expand home visiting services as part of the Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions Action Plan.