Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman. My speech was originally a bit longer, so I will try to skim through some of the elements of it. I thank the committee for the invitation to speak about my priorities, and I thank my officials for joining me.

As the committee will be aware, there is new expanded remit in the Department, encompassing equality matters previously under the remit of the Department of Justice, and subsequently, disability service provision, which is currently under the Department of Health. The Department will address some of the key social issues that Ireland faces in one single Department. A common strand across all the areas that we will address is vulnerability, and people who, historically, have been marginalised from the political process. My intention as Minister is to act as much as I can as a voice for those people at the Cabinet table.

I will begin with the early years sector. This year has been one of significant pressure and challenge for the sector. The entire sector was closed at short notice in March 2020, but it was one of the first to reopen in the summer. I pay tribute all those in this sector for their work in supporting the reopening, and particularly for their work in continuing to remain open during the current level 5 restrictions. It is the work of providers and childcare professionals that has allowed this to be possible.

Throughout this time, my Department and the Government have put in place a range of supports for the sector, most extensively, through the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS. The early years sector was the only one to receive an automatic inclusion to the EWSS up until 31 March, in recognition of the vital role played by the sector. Originally, on average, the EWSS was covering 65% of wage costs for service providers. Since the enhanced EWSS has been announced to coincide with level 5, that has increased to 81%, on average, of the wage costs of providers. The State will provide the early years sector with an additional €200 million in 2020 and an additional €70 million in support up to March 31 2021.

The State will provide the early years sector with an additional €200 million support in 2020, and up to 31 March 2021, an additional €70 million in support.

Nevertheless, we all acknowledge that despite the significant support, pay and conditions in the sector do not reflect the significant burdens on childcare professionals. This impacts on staff but also on children because high turnover rates mean the quality and continuity of care is not being delivered. The 2019 data, which are the most recent available, show that the average wage is €12.55 per hour, which we all know is insufficient.

The programme for Government commits us to creating a joint labour committee, JLC, in the sector that would lead to the drawing up of an employment regulation order, ERO, to determine minimum rates of pay, as well as terms and conditions. I am working with SIPTU, and look forward to continuing to do so, and the new provider group, Early Childhood Ireland, as it works to advance a wage agreement on behalf of staff and providers. I have also engaged with the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation on the issue of sick pay for childcare staff, particularly in the context of the national sick pay scheme that is being actively discussed. My Department will also consider the funding model and the workforce development plan - two ongoing pieces of work - to support and deliver better pay and conditions for childcare professionals in the sector.

We all also recognise that the costs of childcare for parents are too high. The Government will take action to reduce costs substantially in a way that will impact and benefit all parents. The proposals the expert group working on the funding model brings forward to address this issue will be important. All options, including the capping of fees, are on the table for consideration as part of the resolution of that issue. Targeting supports to the most disadvantaged children is fundamental to what my Department seeks to achieve. There are a number of schemes in that regard, such as the early childhood and care and education, ECCE, scheme, which is universal; the access and inclusion model, AIM, which makes ECCE available to children with disabilities; and the national childcare scheme, NCS, which is designed in such a way to combat the poverty traps that have sometimes impacted long term on parents.

As members will be aware, we have discussed this issue in the House on a number of occasions, and there are sponsorship arrangements to provide for especially vulnerable children to allow them to access free early learning and care and school-age childcare. Again, the expert group on the funding model is specifically examining how to target additional funding at the most disadvantaged, and I look forward to continue working to broaden that targeted funding further.

The area of equality has transferred to my Department from the Department of Justice, and much of this work focuses on the implementation of Government strategies dealing with equality in a range of specific vulnerable communities. These strategies include the national strategy for women and girls, the national Traveller and Roma inclusion strategy, the migrant integration strategy and the LGBTI+ inclusion strategy. All these strategies work together to support sustainable development goal 10 by reducing inequality. I will chair the meetings of each strategy and look forward to doing so. I will be engaged with their oversight groups to ensure delivery of the goals set out in each strategy. As some of the strategies near their conclusion, I will work on developing the successor strategy, considering in particular how we can achieve more substantive outcomes. Key legislation in this area that I hope to continue to advance is the Gender Pay Gap Information Bill 2019. I hope we can ensure this will be passed by next year at the latest and that it will be fully operational by 2022. We are also considering the area of socio-economic discrimination as a new ground for discrimination under the Employment Equality Acts and the Equal Status Acts. One of the main changes my Department will experience is the transfer of the issue of disability from both the Department of Health and the Department of Justice. As a result, disability policy and disability service provision will be considered together in the same Department for the first time. This gives us an opportunity to move from considering disability specifically as a health issue to a wider view encompassing all parts of people's lives.

One of the Department's key priorities will be to advance the implementation of the UNCRPD. Our approach to meeting the terms of the convention is one of progressive realisation. What this means in effect is that work is continuing apace on the reforms needed for an optimum level of compliance with the convention's requirements. As we continue to advance the implementation of the convention, it is vital the Government hears the voices of persons who have lived experience of disability. The experiences and perspectives of people with disabilities are paramount in developing policies and programmes that directly address the real needs in their lives. We are establishing the disability participation and consultation network for this reason. This is part of meeting our obligations under the convention. My colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, announced the establishment of this network in August and recently announced the successful applicants for both the organising member and the grant-funded members. One of the body's first tasks will be to organise consultations for Ireland's first state report to the UN on our progress in implementing the convention.

The transfer of functions from the Department of Health in the field of disability involves a range of significant and complex transfer of function orders. It envisages the transfer of responsibility for policy development and for oversight of the provision of health and personal social services for people with a disability, with the associated staff from the Department of Health, taking €2 billion from the health Vote. There will have to be new governance arrangements, particularly in respect of the relationship between my Department and the HSE, and this will require amendments to the health Acts. Work is ongoing between officials in my Department and the Department of Health and we are looking to have a final transfer date in quarter 1 of 2021. In the interim, the Minister for Health retains statutory responsibility for disability matters.

As the committee will be aware, the programme for Government commits to ending direct provision within the lifetime of the Government and replacing it with a new system of international protection accommodation centred on a not-for-profit approach. Dr. Catherine Day's advisory group has reported in recent weeks, and the Minister for Justice and I presented that report to the Government and subsequently published it. The report was very clear in agreeing with the Government's position that direct provision is not fit for purpose and needs to be replaced. This will be done through a White Paper, which is being worked on currently, led by my Department but with engagement from a range of Departments, with a view to bringing forward the White Paper by the end of this year. I have always acknowledged that this would be a complex and difficult piece of work, but it is absolutely essential we have a system of accommodation rooted in human rights that respects the dignity of people awaiting assessments here. We also announced a number of short-term measures, including bringing HIQA in to carry out inspections of existing direct provision centres and introducing vulnerability assessments for new applicants as they arrive. We will work with civil society as well as Government agencies to make sure we bring everyone on board on this very significant and necessary change.

When I started as Minister one of the priorities I identified - I think it is one shared by every member of this committee - is tackling child poverty. We all recognise that growing up in a marginalised and disadvantaged community, experiencing intergenerational cycles of poverty, educational disadvantage and unemployment, seriously hinders the life prospects and opportunities of a child or young person. In the programme for Government we commit to implementing a successor to Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures. A focus on child poverty will be a key component of the successor strategy. I recently outlined in the Dáil that I am committed to establishing a new, ambitious target of child poverty reduction, and this will form a central element of the successor to Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures. However, the target in itself is not enough; we need the means, the structure and the will to deliver on this. As part of the strategy, therefore, we will set out new infrastructure not only within my Department but also across government for the delivery of our child poverty reduction goals. We will have mid-term targets as well as the final target and we will have monitoring mechanisms put in place so we are able not only to monitor progress but also to address any slippage that occurs in achieving our targets. As I said, we will set this ambitious target in the successor strategy to Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures.

When I attended a meeting of the select committee a number of weeks ago, every member highlighted the issue of youth work, the great work done by these services during the pandemic and the need to support the sector. I listened closely to what was being said. We have committed to an additional €5 million investment in youth work next year, which was even more than the sector itself sought. This is to recognise the importance of the work the sector has done to support young people in recent months and years. This year, we have provided a number of small grants for current and capital ICT spending so youth groups can manage and obtain infrastructure for themselves to deal with Covid. We are always looking at youth work targeted services, which help those young people in areas of greatest disadvantage, and universal services, to ensure every child and young person who wants to be involved in youth work has an opportunity to do so.

Tusla is the largest single area of expenditure for the Department and, in recent years, it is well-known that its budget has been under pressure due to various demand-led pressures. This year, I have prioritised resourcing for the agency to ensure it can fulfil its statutory responsibilities and support some of the most vulnerable children and families in our society. I increased its allocation by €61 million this year to €878 million for 2021. This is a 7% increase in Tusla's budget and it is the largest budget increase it has ever received. This is to underline the Government's commitment to supporting the agency to meet that obligation to the most vulnerable in society. It will allow us to do a range of things but key is tackling the demand-led cost pressures regarding the provision of children's residential care, increasing staff allocations to front door referrals and safety planning in order that we can reduce the number of unallocated cases and provide care and protection through quality services for the victims of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. It will also allow us to fulfil our international commitments with regard to taking unaccompanied minors from Greece and other places as quickly as possible, and will also allow Tusla to undertake its new role as the custodian of the database of the mother and baby homes commission. I am very proud to support Tusla in supporting the most vulnerable in our society in the midst of the pandemic.

The legislation to protect the database created by the commission of investigation of women and children who were in mother and baby homes has now become law. We are all very aware of the significant issues raised during the debate about how we as a society and a Government respond to the legacy issues and the issues of institutional abuse that took place in Ireland. Last Wednesday, the Cabinet had a very detailed meeting on these issues and set out a statement outlining a range of issues specifically on the commission of investigation into mother and baby homes and the Government's plan for a wider range of legacy issues. I hope these measures, and the follow-up measures the Government will take, will start to rebuild trust between the Government and survivors' groups.

I have acknowledged in the Dáil, and the Government recognises, that there is a need for more openness and transparency and for greater understanding and acknowledgement of the wishes of survivors. I am engaged in meeting individuals and groups to start to rebuild that trust. The Government made significant announcements indicating a willingness to progress with the national archive of records related to institutional abuse. Such an archive could become a site of openness and truth telling for survivors and for the Irish people in general to understand what happened in these institutions and understand it in its wider context.

I am committed to bringing forward legislation in the near future on the exhumation and, as far as possible, the identification of the remains buried in Tuam and provide for their respectful reburial. I am also committed to bringing forward legislation to address the issue of information and tracing, particularly for adopted people, in a way that puts the rights of adopted people at the centre of any legislation.

All of these legislative measures will require extensive scrutiny. I look forward to working with members of this committee on how we develop that legislation.

As members will be aware, on Friday last my Department received the final report of the commission of investigation into mother and baby homes. The Government is committed to publishing it as soon as possible. The report is currently under review by my Department and the Office of the Attorney General. Additional resources were provided to the Office of the Attorney General to allow this review to be undertaken as quickly as possible. I am determined, in light of the events of the last few weeks, to ensure that the State does right by the survivors of mother and baby homes, their families and anybody who has suffered as a result of institutional abuse that took place in this country.

I hope I have given the committee an indication of some of the priorities of my Department. Given the wide remit of my Department, I cannot speak to every area in the time available. I look forward to discussing these issues further with colleagues now and to working on advancing all of these issues over the next months and years.