Results 20,181-20,200 of 21,128 for speaker:James Reilly

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Legislative Programme (8 Dec 2015)

James Reilly: The Government approved the publication of the Heads and General Scheme of the adoption (information and tracing) Bill 2015 last July. The Bill is intended to facilitate access to adoption information and operates on the basis of a presumption in favour of disclosing information in so far as is legally and constitutionally possible. The Bill will, for the first time, provide a statutory...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Services (8 Dec 2015)

James Reilly: Tusla, the Child and Family Agency provided €47,000 in funding to Westmeath Support Services against Domestic Violence in 2015. I recently announced a significant increase in the funding allocation to Tusla for next year. Tusla will have available to it some €676 million in funding, representing an increase of €38 million over 2015. The precise level of funding to be...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Children in Care (8 Dec 2015)

James Reilly: The death of any child or young person is a tragedy, and a profound loss for their families and carers. To all those affected, I wish to express my sincere sympathies. In order to identify learning about how to better address the needs of vulnerable children and families, the National Review Panel (NRP) was established in 2010 to review serious incidences and deaths of children in care. It...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Departmental Legal Costs (8 Dec 2015)

James Reilly: The information requested by the Deputy is currently being compiled and will be forwarded once it is available.

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Capitation Grants (9 Dec 2015)

James Reilly: Pre-school services qualify for the higher rate of capitation under the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme when they satisfy the qualification requirements under the Programme. In services seeking the higher rate of capitation, the pre-school leader must hold a Level 7 Qualification on the National Framework of Qualifications (or equivalent) and all pre-school assistants...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child Care Services Data (9 Dec 2015)

James Reilly: In September 2015 Tusla reported there were 19,466 children (open cases) who had an allocated social worker dealing with issues of assessment, child protection, and children in care. There were a further 7,013 children (open cases) who had been assessed as needing a dedicated social worker, and were waiting for one to be allocated. Some of these cases may have had an allocated social worker,...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Staff (9 Dec 2015)

James Reilly: I propose to take Questions Nos. 108 to 110, inclusive, together. The Child and Family Agency (TUSLA) was established in January 2014. Tusla has advised that there were 3453 whole time equivalent staff employed as at 31 December 2014. Of these, 1396 were social workers. Tusla has further advised that at 31 October 2015 there are 343 posts under recruitment and of these 239 relate to social...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Departmental Staff Rehiring (10 Dec 2015)

James Reilly: Since its establishment in June 2011, my Department has not received any applications for re-instatement following retirement on grounds of ill-health.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Children and Youth Issues: Minister for Children and Youth Affairs (10 Dec 2015)

James Reilly: That had something of a Corkonian inflection.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Children and Youth Issues: Minister for Children and Youth Affairs (10 Dec 2015)

James Reilly: I am very glad to be here to update the joint committee on the work of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs since we last met in July. The committee has considered a number of issues relevant to my Department since. I thank members for the keen interest shown and the added value they have brought to the process. I would like to summarise the significant progress made on my...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Children and Youth Issues: Minister for Children and Youth Affairs (10 Dec 2015)

James Reilly: I thank everybody for their questions. I genuinely meant what I said earlier that I believe this committee has been very good at teasing out matters and improving our legislation for children. The ICT support for the Health Service Executive, was raised by many members. During the Estimates process, moneys were sought for this which we allocated. The performance statement has been...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Children and Youth Issues: Minister for Children and Youth Affairs (10 Dec 2015)

James Reilly: Grand.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Children and Youth Issues: Minister for Children and Youth Affairs (10 Dec 2015)

James Reilly: I would like to reiterate what I was saying about ICT. Capital moneys that were given to Tusla in 2014 and 2015 remain unspent. I met the chair and the CEO during 2015 to discuss this issue and the national child care information system, which I mentioned earlier. I do not think money is the issue hereper se. Tusla wrote to the Department in late November about the HSE-Tusla service...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Children and Youth Issues: Minister for Children and Youth Affairs (10 Dec 2015)

James Reilly: Is that about the number in Wheatfield Prison? Somebody mentioned that 17 of that age cohort were in the prison but I was not aware that was the number. The Chairman wanted to know when we will complete the new building. Significant progress has been made. The final unit will be received either this month or early next month but our main challenge is not the legislation or the building,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Children and Youth Issues: Minister for Children and Youth Affairs (10 Dec 2015)

James Reilly: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Children and Youth Issues: Minister for Children and Youth Affairs (10 Dec 2015)

James Reilly: Apart from social workers in Tusla, other workers are needed to support the social worker, not least administrative staff to do the secretarial work. There are social workers who do not even have IT support such as an iPad who are writing reports when they could be face to face instead of using a dictaphone and sending off reports. Deputy Sandra McLellan raised an issue in a parliamentary...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Children and Youth Issues: Minister for Children and Youth Affairs (10 Dec 2015)

James Reilly: I will stop now.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Children and Youth Issues: Minister for Children and Youth Affairs (10 Dec 2015)

James Reilly: Senator van Turnhout spoke about the early childhood care and education, ECCE, contract, the learner fund and the higher level 7 qualification. As has been indicated, we want at least one level 6 qualified leader per centre. I hope future learner funds will be able to address level 7 qualifications. The focus to date has necessarily been on levels 5 and 6. We will get there incrementally....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Children and Youth Issues: Minister for Children and Youth Affairs (10 Dec 2015)

James Reilly: Yes, because we could end up with two or three people qualified to level 6 is in one area and none in another.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Children and Youth Issues: Minister for Children and Youth Affairs (10 Dec 2015)

James Reilly: Yes, but at least they will have one person qualified to level 6. Ms McNally will go into more detail because she has more up to date information. Senator van Turnhout also mentioned guardians ad litem and we have addressed this. I am very much in agreement with Deputy Byrne on the youth strategy, ensuring we hear the voice of youth and cherishing all of our children equally in the year we...