Results 4,941-4,960 of 11,744 for speaker:Roderic O'Gorman

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: We continue to engage with the religious institutions. As Deputy Cairns knows, I met them and made the point that it is important they make a substantial contribution to the overall scheme. These engagements are ongoing. I have always been very clear that I did not want the set-up of the scheme to be contingent or dependent on the conclusion of those negotiations. The scheme needs to be...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: I am working on passing legislation based on a specific Government decision. Obviously, legislation can be changed subsequently. Schemes can be changed subsequently if a decision is made. I do not want to speculate on where we are with the process right now.

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Adoption Authority of Ireland and Tusla have been provided with additional resources to increase the levels of staff and increase their systems, particularly IT, to be able to undertake their work under the birth information and tracing legislation. They are provided for under these specific heads. They are not coming from the mother and baby institution heads that we have already...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: With regard to Adoption Authority of Ireland's pay allocation, which is the key element, its pay increased by €1.1 million between 2022 and 2023. There was a small decrease, to which Deputy Cairns referred, in terms of its overall allocation. The main reason for this is that the big information campaign driven by Adoption Authority of Ireland which took place last year is not being...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: I would like to return briefly to the point on birth information and tracing legislation. I have a quarterly meeting with Tusla. I stressed to the outgoing chief executive and the interim chief executive the importance I place on Tusla fulfilling the obligations it has to rapidly meet people's request for information and the importance of the organisation doing all it can. We have provided...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: My understanding is that €121 million was the cost of bringing the subsidy from 50 cent up to €1.21.

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: We do not have that quite yet. We will have it later in the year because we also have to take account of the core funding and new funding. Not only have we made the NCS much bigger, we have obviously brought in core funding by brand new enlarged funding as well. We will provide a calculation on that and maybe discuss it later in the year.

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: There is a €9 million capital allocation for the early years sector for 2023.

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: I will flag that the grant scheme was advertised in the latter part of last year and the deadline has closed for that.

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: It has been very heavily subscribed. The €9 million is the improvement grant. Services had until mid-December to apply for it and the outcome for that will be provided in early March. Services will know in early March if they were successful in that regard. We will be running another capital scheme in the middle of this year for claiming next year in 2024. That will be looking...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Ministers, Deputies McEntee and Harris, are obviously working on the creation of this new agency, which will take over the functions Tusla currently has in terms of funding for refuges and services around the country. We used to be politically responsible for Tusla doing that. The political responsibility for that has now gone to the Department of Justice. Once established, the...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank Deputies for their questions today. I particularly thank my officials for joining me and for all the work that went into preparing the Revised Estimates.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Policies (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: In 2019, the European Commission announced the creation of a European Child Guarantee with a view to ensuring that every child in Europe at risk of poverty or social exclusion has access to the most basic of rights like healthcare and education. The Child Guarantee, adopted by the Council of the European Union in June 2021, aims to prevent and combat social exclusion by guaranteeing the...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Ukraine War (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: Over 72,000 Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection (BOTPs) have arrived in Ireland since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Of those, more than 53,000 have been referred to my Department seeking accommodation. Overseeing provision of accommodation on this scale during this timeframe for all those who require it remains immensely challenging. Due to the urgent need to source...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Social Media (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Department does not collate this information. It is available publicly by referencing the social media accounts in question.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Ukraine War (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: I understand the frustration expressed by the person concerned in the email to which the Deputy refers. I am aware that considerable efforts have been made by the relevant local authority to avail of his generous offer of pledged accommodation for Ukrainian beneficiaries of temporary protection. My Department has also brought this recent correspondence to the attention of the Irish Red...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: International Protection (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: My Department continues on an ongoing basis to assess and review all accommodation offers received  as to their suitability to meet the needs of beneficiaries of Temporary Protection. As part of this process, my Department reviews suitable accommodation where individual properties can provide a minimum of 15 bed spaces in line with standard space requirements. Properties cannot be...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme is a universal two-year pre-school programme available to all children within the eligible age range. A child must have reached 2 years and 8 months of age on or prior to 31 August of the relevant programme year to be eligible for the September start date. There is no discretion on eligible starting dates however it is possible, if a...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Ukraine War (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: My Department has engaged over 700 properties to provide accommodation for Ukrainian Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection.  In line with the Department’s commitment to substantially clear the backlog at the end of 2022, my Department temporarily re-assigned staff from other parts of the Department to the payments team in December, doubling the size of the payments unit. The...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Wards of Court (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: This is a matter for my cabinet colleague, the Minister for Justice, as the court services are under his remit.