Results 781-800 of 11,700 for speaker:Roderic O'Gorman

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Disabilities Assessments (2 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: Both the Government and the HSE remain committed to the delivery of appropriate services for children with disabilities and will work with families and staff to develop services that meet their needs. I acknowledge the delays in accessing Assessments of Need (AONs) and therapy interventions, directly related to vacancies across the Children’s Disability Network Teams (CDNTs). Work...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (2 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: All Early Years services are required by law to register with Tusla. Registered providers are required to notify Tusla in writing of the closure of a service not later than 28 days after the closure. The register is updated monthly, in arrears, by Tusla. In total, at the end of August 2024 there was a combined number of 5,043 preschool and stand-alone school-age childcare (SAC) services...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Projects (2 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: In March 2022 Government approved high level proposals for the National Centre for Research and Remembrance, to be located on the site of the former Magdalen Laundry in Sean McDermott Street, Dublin 1. The National Centre will comprise: a museum and exhibition space, to be led by the National Museum of Ireland; a research centre and repository of records related to institutional trauma in...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: International Protection (2 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: Ireland has a legal obligation to meet the temporary accommodation needs of people newly arrived in Ireland seeking international protection and International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) centres are established for this specific purpose. I support and I will always defend that process because it is important that people who are fleeing war and conflict have the ability to find...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (2 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: Some €89 million has been allocated to the sector over the period 2023-2026 under the revised National Development Plan. This will enable significant capital investment in early learning and childcare. My Department’s Building Blocks Capacity Grant scheme, which is operating over 2024 and 2025, will support services to increase capacity through two strands, the Expansion Scheme,...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: International Protection (2 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: My Department has not conducted a socioeconomic impact assessment in relation to the Accommodation Recognition Payment (ARP) scheme. However, before considering extending the scheme, which ends in March 2025, my Department consulted its key pledge stakeholders; the Irish Red Cross, the International Organisation for Migration and the Local Government Management Agency, via survey and...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (2 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I launched Together For Better, the new funding model for early learning and childcare in September 2022. A key objective of this model is to make early learning and childcare more affordable. Through Together for Better, my Department provides a number of schemes which offset the cost of early learning and childcare to families. The ECCE programme, which provides two years of preschool...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (2 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: Equal Start is a major new model of Government-funded supports to ensure children experiencing disadvantage can access and meaningfully participate in early learning and childcare. Equal Start was launched in May and the first phase of implementation commenced in September. Around 750 services have been targeted for supports under Equal Start as they have been objectively found to have the...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (2 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: A key objective of my Department to reduce the cost of childcare for parents to an affordable level. Investment in early learning and childcare is at unprecedented levels with public funding exceeding €1.1 billion, clearly demonstrating Government commitment to this objective. The ECCE programme, which provides two years of preschool without charge, enjoys participation rates of...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (2 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: My Department is progressing a range of actions to improve the accessibility and affordability of early learning and childcare. The National Childcare Scheme (NCS) is the primary measure aimed at reducing childcare costs. Through the provision of both universal and targeted subsidies, the NCS ensures the highest levels of subsidies go to families that need them most. Since January 2023...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Schemes (2 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Childcare Support Act 2018, which provides the statutory basis for the National Childcare Scheme, specifies that the Scheme is only open to Tusla-registered providers. This ensures that public funding is provided where there is assurance of the quality of provision. Therefore, only childminders who are registered with Tusla can offer the National Childcare Scheme to the families that...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (2 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: The 2001 Planning Guidelines for Local Authorities on Early Learning and Childcare Settings, issued under section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, provide the current framework to guide both local authorities, and developers and ELC and SAC providers in formulating and considering development proposals. The Guidelines are intended to ensure a consistency of approach...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Youth Services (2 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: My Department has made a significant investment in youth services in 2024, building on the increases in recent years and securing the achievements into the future. The current funding for youth services and programmes in my Department this year is €78 million, an increase of €5 million, or 6.8%, on the 2023 budget. From 2020 to Budget 2024, current Exchequer funding for youth...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (2 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: The introduction of Core Funding in 2022 brought a significant increase in investment for the sector, with €259 million of funding paid directly to services in year 1 of the scheme, of which €210.8 million was entirely new funding. This funding, which increased by 11% (to €287 million) in year 2, will increase again by another 15% in year 3 (to €331 million)....

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Disability Services (2 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: The allocation made for Specialist Disability Services in my Department's budget for 2025 is €3.2 billion. This funding will help support people with disabilities participate equally in society. The money will go towards improving and expanding services, increasing pay, and assisting people to continue living independently in their own homes. I believe this significant allocation...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: International Protection (2 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: Due to a number of well-documented factors, my Department has not been in a position to offer International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) accommodation to every adult male seeking IP since 4 December 2023. As of 26 September 2024, 2,756 people who applied for international protection (IP) since December 2023 have not been offered accommodation. A triage process is in place for...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Flexible Work Practices (2 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Government is committed to supporting workers, and working parents in particular. The Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023 provides for a right to request flexible working for parents and carers, as provided for in the EU Work Life Balance Directive. Such flexible working arrangements will allow parents and carers to alter their working day or pattern to care for...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Equality Issues (2 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I am pleased to inform the Deputy that drafting of the successor to the National LGBTI+ inclusion Strategy is currently advancing well. As the Deputy may be aware, an independent review of the National LGBTI+ Inclusion Strategy was commissioned by my department, and the final report was published in June 2024. This review will inform, in part, the development of the successor Strategy....

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (2 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: My Department is progressing a range of actions to ensure the supply of early learning and childcare meets demand, with work in this area led by a Supply Management Unit that I established earlier this year. A key part of the Supply Management Unit’s remit is to develop a better understanding of the nature of supply and how it relates to demand and to develop policy to support the...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Mother and Baby Homes (2 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Deputy has sought some statistics pertaining to the operation of the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme which I provide here up to 30 September. Applications received In processing Notices of determination Benefits No benefits Accepted Paid or in process of being paid Average payment 5,163* ...