Results 2,341-2,360 of 7,823 for speaker:Jim Daly

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: General Scheme of Childcare (Amendment) Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Apr 2017)

Jim Daly: I apologise to the Senator. I shall set aside time for the reply in the next round. Perhaps one of the witnesses might take note of the need to address that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: General Scheme of Childcare (Amendment) Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Apr 2017)

Jim Daly: I will not allow answers now. Members have raised the legitimate issue and I have allowed the Deputy contribute before other members who indicated.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: General Scheme of Childcare (Amendment) Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Apr 2017)

Jim Daly: I appreciate that. I will allow everyone to contribute and I urge Deputy Lisa Chambers to be brief. I cannot allow a two-way interaction.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: General Scheme of Childcare (Amendment) Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Apr 2017)

Jim Daly: Sorry, that was my fault and appreciate the comment.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: General Scheme of Childcare (Amendment) Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Apr 2017)

Jim Daly: No, it is all right. It is all the same whether one goes left to right or vice versa.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: General Scheme of Childcare (Amendment) Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Apr 2017)

Jim Daly: I thank the Deputy. I wish to make some comments before the deputations come in again. When answering the questions, please keep specifically to this legislation as opposed to straying into other legislation, something we could tend to do. I wish to make three brief points. As I said the last day, I have a major issue with the costs. The costs are astronomical. Can anyone before the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: General Scheme of Childcare (Amendment) Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Apr 2017)

Jim Daly: Thank you. We have to keep moving because we are under time pressure.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: General Scheme of Childcare (Amendment) Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Apr 2017)

Jim Daly: We must move on because we are eating into the time we have with the Minister. We have only limited time with the Minister up to 12 p.m. to get that on board so I must get the balance right. Does Mr. Walsh wish to comment?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: General Scheme of Childcare (Amendment) Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Apr 2017)

Jim Daly: I thank the witnesses. The clerk has advised me that a report was made to the Committee of Public Accounts on the guardian ad litemservice. The Comptroller and Auditor General did a lot of work on the breakdown of the costs. The report is available for information purposes. In summary, a total of 1,600 children availed of the service last year at a cost of €16 million which works...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: General Scheme of Childcare (Amendment) Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Apr 2017)

Jim Daly: I welcome the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Katherine Zappone, and her officials, Ms Eimear Fisher, assistant secretary, and Ms Lara Hynes, principal officer. I thank them for appearing before the committee.I ask members and the Minister to turn off their mobile phones as they interfere with the recording equipment and make coverage of the meeting difficult. By virtue of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: General Scheme of Childcare (Amendment) Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Apr 2017)

Jim Daly: I thank Ms Fisher.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: General Scheme of Childcare (Amendment) Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Apr 2017)

Jim Daly: I thank the Minister.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: General Scheme of Childcare (Amendment) Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Apr 2017)

Jim Daly: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: General Scheme of Childcare (Amendment) Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Apr 2017)

Jim Daly: I will allow members to comment again but I urge them to stick to asking questions. I propose to call on Deputies Rabbitte, Jan O'Sullivan and Ó Laoghaire to speak in that order.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: General Scheme of Childcare (Amendment) Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Apr 2017)

Jim Daly: The Deputy wants the Minister to clarify whether the Department has changed the role of Tusla.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: General Scheme of Childcare (Amendment) Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Apr 2017)

Jim Daly: The matter has been clarified.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: General Scheme of Childcare (Amendment) Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Apr 2017)

Jim Daly: I believe a compulsory GAL would be very dangerous territory. It would be appointing a GAL for every child for the sake of appointing one, because there are numerous cases where it is not necessary to have a GAL. There has to be a level in that regard. This is all about giving effect to the voice of the child. There is one issue that often confuses me. In court cases involving a child in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: General Scheme of Childcare (Amendment) Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Apr 2017)

Jim Daly: Is it possible to specify it further? As I understand it, they are not consulted in any way in the vast majority of cases. Foster carers will tell one, and I am trying to depersonalise this, that they have no role in this and that they are told it is a matter between the State and the child. It is my experience that there is a clear and deliberate intention to exclude foster carers from...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: General Scheme of Childcare (Amendment) Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Apr 2017)

Jim Daly: In most cases the foster carer is the person who knows the child better than anybody else, be it his or her social worker, the judge or the GAL, yet they do not have any role. It is something that might be considered for the legislation, notwithstanding that it could be done by way of regulation. This might be an opportunity to give it a stronger effect.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: General Scheme of Childcare (Amendment) Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Apr 2017)

Jim Daly: I thank the Minister and her team for their contributions and their time. I also thank the members for their co-operation.