Results 8,941-8,960 of 11,754 for speaker:Roderic O'Gorman

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (28 Sep 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Programme is a universal free two-year preschool programme available to all children within the eligible age range. There are currently no plans to change the number of entry dates into the ECCE programme. The minimum eligibility age of 2 years and 8 months for the ECCE programme was chosen based on national experience and a review of...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (28 Sep 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: Significant additional financial supports have been made available to early learning and childcare services throughout the Covid-19 pandemic to ensure that they can remain sustainable and to assist in defraying the additional costs of operating under new public health requirements, including the operation of ‘play pods’. In particular, the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: General Scheme of the Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2021: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the committee for this opportunity to talk to it about the general scheme of the birth information and tracing Bill. I am grateful that the committee has prioritised this legislation in its programme of work. I think we all share a wish to urgently address this issue, and it is my hope that we can all work together to achieve that in the interests of the people affected. I thank...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: General Scheme of the Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2021: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the Deputy. I have met a wide range of groups and individuals in advance of the publication of the heads of the Bill and particularly since they were published. I have met a number of the campaigning groups in this area. I have met the Adoption Rights Alliance, Aitheantas, Tusla and the Adoption Authority of Ireland. Last month, I visited Tuam, where I met four of the groups...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: General Scheme of the Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2021: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: I will do my best. I will come back to some of the questions afterwards because some of them were really important. The first point the Senator raised was a really difficult one. Inasmuch as she has spoken to mothers who very much see themselves as "birth mothers", I have engaged with mothers who feel the term "birth mother" reduces them simply to individuals who gave birth, the...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: General Scheme of the Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2021: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: I will come back to the issues of the information session, the specialised registry and the supports for the illegal birth registrations group. Maybe Senator McGreehan can ask me about them later.

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: General Scheme of the Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2021: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: It is important to remember that the central purpose of the information meeting is to ensure that the constitutional privacy rights of a parent or a mother who indicated a no-contact preference are respected. It only applies to that group who have clearly indicated a no-contact preference. The purpose of the meeting is to ensure that the no-contact preference is respectfully conveyed to the...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: General Scheme of the Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2021: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the Deputy for his questions. As I said, the final draft of the Bill will be different. These are the heads of the Bill and there will be improvements. The final draft of the Bill will provide for the provision of counselling supports for those who were adopted, those subjected to illegal birth registration and those mothers and parents who seek to use the processes provided for in...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: General Scheme of the Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2021: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: There has been much criticism of Tusla in the past. Part of that was because Tusla was operating under the existing law, which is not suitable and does not allow the agency to provide much information. There have been problems regarding how Tusla's social workers have engaged, particularly with adopted people and survivors of mother and baby homes. That was discussed in the context of...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: General Scheme of the Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2021: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: On the Deputy's first question, I have tried to use the term "mother" in this engagement and in all my recent engagements on this matter. That is a useful suggestion. I refer to the issue of GDPR restriction. The reason we propose to restrict certain parts of GDPR under this legislation is to guarantee full and unrestricted right of access to the adopted person. If we do not provide some...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: General Scheme of the Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2021: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: Yes, people will still be able to make a subject access request to my Department.

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: General Scheme of the Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2021: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: Yes, there is a live data protection impact assessment with the Bill. That will be shared when the final draft of the Bill is published. My officials will engage with the Data Protection Commission on that document.

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: General Scheme of the Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2021: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: When a mother has a concern about the accuracy of information on a file, I believe that will be addressed through the existing processes and, in particular, the subject access request. I am aware there is a fear among some mothers that something inaccurate or, indeed, derogatory about them may have been put on their file at the time of the adoption about their own circumstances. There is an...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: General Scheme of the Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2021: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: I apologise for interrupting the Deputy. Her connection broke down while she was making what was, I presume, an important point. Would she mind repeating the last two or three sentences? I missed them entirely.

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: General Scheme of the Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2021: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: Yes, it will be provided for. If someone comes in after the three-month period and registers a no contact preference, or any preference, that will be put onto the contact preference register. Obviously, if somebody has sought information already, prior to that no contact preference being lodged, then that information will have been given out. This Bill goes further than nudging the...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: General Scheme of the Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2021: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: I take the Deputy's point on the importance of the inclusivity of these information measures, particularly in that three-month period. It has to be recognised that the information is going to be addressed to people who are in their 80s and 90s, people who are 16 years of age and people who have different lives, many of whom are not in Ireland any more. I absolutely bear that in mind. It is...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: General Scheme of the Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2021: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: This Bill is all about providing people with clear and guaranteed access to their care information and providing that access for the first time. The really important issue of the next of kin has come up in many of the submissions that have come before this committee. We are engaging with the Attorney General's office and with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel on what provisions can...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: General Scheme of the Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2021: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the Chair. I thank all members for their detailed questions. We are all working together to try and achieve the best legislation possible but also legislation we can pass as quickly as possible in order that people can more easily benefit from the process. I have addressed all of the issues but I would like to talk about the issue of illegal birth registration. As we know, the...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: General Scheme of the Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2021: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: I welcome the Deputy to the committee. I will try to address her points. In terms of the use of the phrase "birth parent", I am open to looking at how we can address that and use language to correctly and appropriately represent mothers and fathers through the Bill. I am open to anything there. We can definitely look at the issue raised by the Deputy in respect of the timeframe. ...

Ombudsman for Children's Initiative on Eliminating Child Poverty and Child Homelessness: Statements (23 Sep 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the Deputies for their contributions to the statements this afternoon. I look forward to my engagement with Dr. Muldoon when we meet in the coming weeks to discuss his proposals in the A Better Normal document in greater detail. The child guarantee I spoke about earlier will help Ireland to sharpen its response and frameworks towards the goal of all children growing up with the same...