Results 6,381-6,400 of 11,745 for speaker:Roderic O'Gorman

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Reports (7 Jul 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the Deputy for the question and I am very excited that we are bringing forward a new, third, cohort of the Growing Up in Ireland, GUI, survey. GUI represents a significant and valuable State investment in high quality, policy-relevant data on the lives of children, young people and their families. To date, GUI has generated more than 90 reports and a multitude of findings. These...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Reports (7 Jul 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: It is hard to overstate how important GUI is in terms of the scale of research. Interviewing of more than 11,000 people takes place. One group was 12, the other group was 22 and now there is this new group. This has been able to chart major developments. The first group would have been some of the first children to undertake the early childhood care and education, ECCE, programme and was...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Reports (7 Jul 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: The overall cost of GUI for the next three years is just short of €14 million and €4 million of that will be dedicated towards that new cohort. The information will be publicised through a range of methods. There is an annual conference where research that has been undertaken on foot of the data is discussed. Each of the new reports is publicised widely so we have taken and...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Childcare Services (7 Jul 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: In April a nationwide survey of capacity in early learning and childcare services was undertaken by city and county childcare committees. That survey was followed in May by the annual early years sector profile survey that is undertaken by Pobal. Approximately 89% of providers have already participated. Preliminary analysis of those data reveal vacancy rates for children under one and...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Childcare Services (7 Jul 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: The quickest response is through core funding, which, per child, provides three times the amount of funding for services that have rooms for children under the age of one as opposed to, say, a room for school-aged childcare. We recognise that it is more expensive to provide a baby room or a toddler room, so core funding will provide additional support for services to open and to sustain such...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Childcare Services (7 Jul 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: We have not yet drafted the complete terms and conditions in respect of the additional capacity. We are working on that. We will draw from a range of sources, recognising that different providers engage with different surveys in different ways. I absolutely recognise that there are parts of the city where there are real capacity constraints; they are in my constituency as well. I see the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: International Protection (7 Jul 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: On 10 September 2015, as part of Ireland's response to the migration crisis in central and southern Europe, the Government established the Irish refugee protection programme, IRPP. The IRPP has seen the arrival of approximately 4,100 refugees under various resettlement strands, the largest of which is the programme led by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR. There...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Childcare Services (7 Jul 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: We have had an extensive and valuable discussion in the House today on the issue of childcare. It is worth mentioning childminders in recognition that centre-based childcare is not the only method of childcare provision. Thousands of families across the country rely on childminders. We brought in the childminding action plan to provide an appropriate degree of regulation of that sector,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Childcare Services (7 Jul 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Deputy has raised the issue of ECCE-only service providers with me on a number of occasions. We continue to examine the concerns raised by some of these service providers. I made the point before that only a small number, amounting to 1%, will see no change in their funding allocation. The vast majority of ECCE service providers will see additional money coming into them as a result of...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Residential Institutions (7 Jul 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: Since its publication last November, there has been strong progress in implementing many of the key commitments in the action plan. Of the 22 actions, eight have already been completed while 12 are in progress. Key achievements include the enactment of the Birth Information and Tracing Act 2022, to conclusively address the wrongful denial of people's identity rights; the launch of a...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Residential Institutions (7 Jul 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I am acutely aware of the importance of getting both the financial payments and enhanced medical cards to the people who need them as a matter of urgency. That is why the drafting of this detailed Bill was done at pace. The pre-legislative scrutiny process is almost over. I will seek to have the Bill passed early in the autumn term. It has always been my hope that the first payments will...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Residential Institutions (7 Jul 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: There is a breakdown of age which I do not have to hand but I will communicate it to the Deputy. It spans a wide range. There are people at the edge of the range who are elderly, as the Deputy mentioned. We recognise that many of those eligible were children when they were formerly resident. There are also a number of people who are middle aged. In terms of the process, we are working...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Childcare Services (7 Jul 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: We are providing significant new core funding. The allocation for this first year is €221 million. We have also made it clear that we are going to be putting additional money into the NCS. Therefore, we are making these schemes as attractive as possible to support providers as far as possible. As I said already in my answers, one of three challenges we face is the sustainability of...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Childcare Services (7 Jul 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: One of the key reasons we have linked the provision of core funding to services and the NCS is to ensure that we can get that agreement for the additional money being invested to go to pay staff. Without some element of conditionality regarding the money we are giving, we would not be able to guarantee that those enhanced levels of pay, that are being negotiated now, would actually be...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Childcare Services (7 Jul 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: The availability of high-quality early learning and childcare that is affordable and accessible is a key Government priority. To ensure that the supply of early learning and childcare places meets demand, my Department has, since 2015, funded the creation of more than 27,000 new places, as well as the upgrading of services through an annual capital programme. With the onset of Covid-19 in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Childcare Provision (7 Jul 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: On the specific issue of childcare, which is directly within my control, we have demonstrated through the research that the NCS is delivering for one-parent families. Since the report was compiled, we removed the deduction of wrap-around care for children whose parents are not in work or further education. That will benefit approximately 5,000 young children, including some of those most at...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Childcare Provision (7 Jul 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I disagree with the Deputy slightly on targeting, particularly regarding the removal of wrap-around hours. That certainly targets the most vulnerable children, namely, those whose parents who are not in work or study. The change was a direct response to advocacy I received from a range of representative groups across the early learning and childcare sector, including the community sector...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Childcare Services (7 Jul 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I firmly believe that the level of pay for early years educators and school-age childcare practitioners should reflect the value of their work for children, families, society and the wider economy. I know everyone across this House is united in the belief that the level of pay needs to improve. The State is not the employer of childcare staff, and my Department does not set their wage...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Childcare Services (7 Jul 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I absolutely agree with the Deputy that we need to cut costs for parents. I have set out clearly the mechanism by which we will do so and also deliver better pay for childcare professionals. I have not had the opportunity to study the new proposals from his party and I look forward to doing so. I recall that in respect of last year's budget, it proposed an investment of significantly less...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Childcare Services (7 Jul 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: The contract for core funding was issued in the past two weeks. Childcare providers will be filling out and returning their applications. We do not know at this point what the numbers are. We know 96% of providers have signed up to the transition scheme, which includes the agreement to limit fee increases. We know 89% of providers have signed up to the sector profile, which is the first...