Results 6,501-6,520 of 10,833 for speaker:Anne Rabbitte

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Children's Unmet Needs: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Children, Disability, Equality, Integration and Youth (15 Dec 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: This will prompt questions we can talk again about. The questions must be asked about the involvement of the HSE and the section 38 and section 39 organisations that would be supported. What was the involvement of private operators coming on board? I responded earlier to Deputy Sherlock and spoke about 29 cases being dealt with in the same period. There are questions to be asked. The...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Children's Unmet Needs: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Children, Disability, Equality, Integration and Youth (15 Dec 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: They have articulated frustration on assessment needs and paying for assessments. Deputy Sherlock asked about that earlier. The children must move from junior to senior school and they are not in the same school settings. Some of the families, as the classrooms are not in a local community school, may have to travel for an hour or an hour and a half across the city to access services. It...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Children's Unmet Needs: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Children, Disability, Equality, Integration and Youth (15 Dec 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: This gives me an opportunity to welcome what Senator Fitzpatrick said, and I will tell her why. The committee members know me and my work on the children and youth affairs committee over the past four years, and members know exactly the sort of person I am. I am very open and transparency is very much part and parcel of the person I am. I would welcome the opportunity of laying before the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Children's Unmet Needs: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Children, Disability, Equality, Integration and Youth (15 Dec 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: I am talking to the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, about universal design in this regard. It also came up at the Joint Committee on Disability Matters, which it is building in as part and parcel of its piece also. Universal design is very important. The Senator referred to local authorities. I do not wish to bring up again the standard operating procedure, SOP, in the context of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Children's Unmet Needs: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Children, Disability, Equality, Integration and Youth (15 Dec 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: The dialogue has been absolutely fantastic, to be fair. There is a massive team working within the HSE and it is led by Dr. Cathal Morgan and Mr. Bernard O' Regan, with whom I meet or chat to at least once a week. Since taking office, I have seen that that train had started when I arrived and the commitment was there before I arrived. These people were committed to the roll out and the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Children's Unmet Needs: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Children, Disability, Equality, Integration and Youth (15 Dec 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: I thank Deputy Dillon. It is important to acknowledge the work that CHO 2 does. The Deputy and I live in CHO 2. That is Galway, Mayo and Roscommon, and under the lead of Mr. John Fitzmaurice and Ms Breda Crehan-Roche, they have done phenomenal work. The number there in June of 2020 was 100 and as of November, the number has been brought back to 55. That is a commitment and a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Children's Unmet Needs: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Children, Disability, Equality, Integration and Youth (15 Dec 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: I would welcome that for the simple reason that we have embraced technology throughout Covid and we would not want to leave anyone behind. That was the motto at the start of Covid and it should still be the motto. That was one of the reasons when I provided the additional €20 million after the budget that some of the providers, if they were making a request for funding, must also...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Children's Unmet Needs: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Children, Disability, Equality, Integration and Youth (15 Dec 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: I will reference it because it would not be me not to reference it, as the Deputy will know. Let me address the CHO 3 question. As of 30 June, the backlog of assessment of needs was 589. In September, it was reduced to 559. In October, it was 503, and in November, 449. I will turn those figures on their head. One can see that CHO 3 had completed 30 in September, 56 in October and 54 in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Children's Unmet Needs: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Children, Disability, Equality, Integration and Youth (15 Dec 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: The Deputy is right that there is a crossover between the Department of Education and my Department but the child that he speaks of is the child with a disability and the parent that he speaks of is the parent of a child with a disability so the children with disabilities are my children. As the Minister of State at the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Children's Unmet Needs: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Children, Disability, Equality, Integration and Youth (15 Dec 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Children's Unmet Needs: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Children, Disability, Equality, Integration and Youth (15 Dec 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: The backlog for CHO 5 is as follows: As of 30 June 2020 there were 643; at the end of September the number was still 643; as at the end of October the number was 619; and at the end of November it was 501. Again, to turn the figures on their head, the number of assessments of need completed in CHO 5 for September was nil, for October it was 24 and for November it was 118. The monthly...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Disabilities Assessments (10 Dec 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: Deputy Bruton has pulled together in his comments where we want to get to. The child should at all times get the necessary intervention. We should also equip the people who spend eight hours per day in classrooms in developing the skill sets they need to support the child in his or her pathway through education. We need to crack this nut - I used that phrase earlier - for the simple reason...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Disabilities Assessments (10 Dec 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: Absolutely. I would welcome more involvement of people with experience for the simple reason that I think we all want the one thing: we want the families to get their interventions. We do not want lists upon lists. I look forward to working with the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, on this. I believe in the network disability teams, coupled with the school inclusion model so we can have...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Disabilities Assessments (10 Dec 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: I thank Deputy Bruton for raising this vital question. As I said in my earlier contribution, one of my key priorities is finding a model that actually works. Let us have one list so that when a child reaches early years education or school and needs an assessment, it is done in a timely way and an intervention can be accessed. The intervention should follow all the way through. Children...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Disabilities Assessments (10 Dec 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: I again thank the Deputy for this opportunity to lay out exactly what my plans are and to share them with the House. The funding I received through Sláintecare is being adequately used to address that backlog at this moment in time. Next week, at the Joint Committee on Children, Disability, Equality and Integration, I plan to have all the figures to show exactly how the funding has...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Disabilities Assessments (10 Dec 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: The whole idea of the standard operating procedure, or SOP, was to gather information so we could put people on different pathways. However, that only ever got off the ground for approximately six weeks because Covid landed. Again, I am seeking funding from the Minister for Health and am using that funding appropriately to address the backlog. As a new Minister of State in my portfolio,...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Disabilities Assessments (10 Dec 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: I thank the Deputy for raising this question and giving me the opportunity to clarify the position. I have been observing the engagements of the Joint Committee on Children, Disability, Equality and Integration with the families, the Children's Ombudsman and other representatives. The length of time to complete an assessment of need under the Disability Act will vary depending on the...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Covid-19 Pandemic (10 Dec 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: All day service locations with the exception of those being utilised as COVID-19 Isolation or testing centres have reopened since August.   There are currently 7 day service locations nationally that are being used for COVID-19 isolation or testing centres: one in CHO1; two in CHO2; one in CHO3 and three in CHO9.   Service users that usually received their supports from...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Disability Services Provision (10 Dec 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: Both the Government and I, as Minister of State for Disabilities recognise the critical need and importance of supports for all children with disabilities and their families. The impact of Covid-19 on people’s lives has and still continues to be very significant.  Some services continued during the pandemic with staff including Speech and Language Therapists working with children...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Disabilities Assessments (10 Dec 2020)

Anne Rabbitte: I acknowledge that there are significant delays in the Assessment of Need process and that this places significant strain on families and children with disabilities waiting on assessments. It has been a priority for me, as Minister for Disabilities and for this Government to reduce the waiting times for Assessment of Need and improve compliance with the time frames set out in Part 2 of the...