Results 2,381-2,400 of 7,359 for speaker:Katherine Zappone

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Children in Care (2 May 2017)

Katherine Zappone: Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, may receive a child into care on a voluntary basis or following an application to the courts. There are a range of orders provided for under the Child Care Act 1991, as amended. I can confirm that Tusla does not hold data on the reasons for the divergences in the granting of care orders by different courts. Decisions on the variation or discharge of a...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Children in Care (2 May 2017)

Katherine Zappone: Tusla’s aftercare service provides young people leaving care with the planning and support they need in making the transition to independent living. The Child Care (Amendment) Act 2015 was signed into law in December 2015. It entitles eligible young people to a formal aftercare plan, prepared by Tusla in collaboration with the young person leaving care. In response to this...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Staff (2 May 2017)

Katherine Zappone: My officials have requested the information from Tusla and I will forward the reply to the Deputy once I have been furnished with it.

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Inter-Country Adoptions (2 May 2017)

Katherine Zappone: The Adoption Authority of Ireland has responsibility for implementing the Adoption Act 2010, including Ireland's responsibilities under the Hague Convention in relation to inter-country adoption. Haiti ratified the Hague Convention on 1 April 2014. In May 2014 the Adoption Authority of Ireland accredited Helping Hands Adoption Mediation Agency to facilitate inter country adoption between...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Staff (2 May 2017)

Katherine Zappone: The detailed information requested relating to County Donegal is not readily available in my Department. My officials have requested the information from Tusla and I will forward the reply to the Deputy once I have been furnished with it.

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child Care Services Expenditure (2 May 2017)

Katherine Zappone: I can confirm to the Deputy that there are no contracted services providing sleepovers on assignment or other similar specialist services directly to my Department. In relation to the minimum wage, the Deputy will be aware that the increase to €9.25 per hour came into effect on the 1st January 2017 and that it is a matter for individual service providers to ensure that their...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child Care Services (2 May 2017)

Katherine Zappone: The policy paper for the introduction of the affordable child care scheme was approved by Government in October 2016. Since then, officials of my Department and Pobal have been working intensively to plan for the implementation of this scheme. This is an extremely complex and ambitious project because of all that is involved – legislation, new business processes, data protection and...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child Care Services Data (2 May 2017)

Katherine Zappone: The planned work processes for the administration of the affordable child care scheme (ACS) will be considered from a data protection perspective, with the imminent EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in mind. The services of data protection specialists have been secured to undertake an initial privacy impact assessment (PIA) on the planned work processes for the new scheme. This...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Funding (2 May 2017)

Katherine Zappone: Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, provides a range of out of hours services to all areas of the country, aimed at addressing emergency situations in the area of child welfare and protection. Out of hours services are currently organised in three structures to deliver services to three areas: the greater Dublin area, Cork city and all other areas. In 2017, Tusla plans to coordinate the...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Garda Vetting Applications Data (2 May 2017)

Katherine Zappone: The Department of Children and Youth Affairs allocated extra funding of €9,650 to Barnardos to assist in clearing the Garda vetting backlog that had arisen owing to the introduction of e-vetting in April 2016. This extra funding enabled Barnardos to hire 1 extra full time staff member for 3 months from 7 December 2016 to 2 March 2017. At the conclusion of this period the backlog of...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Capitation Grants (2 May 2017)

Katherine Zappone: The actual cost of this proposal would be subject to a number of factors including actual levels of participation, and the number of children subvented at the 'higher capitation' rate - costs increase as the number of higher qualified staff increase. My Department estimates the cost of such a measure to be in the region of €36m per annum.

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Data (2 May 2017)

Katherine Zappone: The latest figures from Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, indicates that, at the end of February 2016, there were 6,309 children in care. Of these, 355 (6%) were in a residential placement. I have asked Tusla to provide the information requested by the Deputy in respect of the cost and number of social care workers who are providing care in the residential settings, and I will revert when...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Data (2 May 2017)

Katherine Zappone: The detailed information requested relating to costs by region and residential care is not readily available in my Department. My officials have requested the information from Tusla and I will forward the reply to the Deputy once I have been furnished with it.

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Family Resource Centres (3 May 2017)

Katherine Zappone: I have requested information from Tusla, the Child and Family Agency. I will forward the reply to the Deputy once I have been furnished with this information.

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Aftercare Services (3 May 2017)

Katherine Zappone: My officials have requested the information from Tusla and I will forward the reply to the Deputy once I have been furnished with it.

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Public Sector Staff Remuneration (3 May 2017)

Katherine Zappone: The Deputy might note that my Department did not make any payments to the person in question. In relation to the State Agencies under the remit of my Department I am also advised that Tusla, the Adoption Authority of Ireland and the Oberstown Children Detention Campus did not incur any such payments and that the Office of the Ombudsman for Children will respond directly to the Deputy in the...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Domestic Violence Services Funding (4 May 2017)

Katherine Zappone: Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, has statutory responsibility for care and protection of victims of domestic, sexual and gender based violence. Ireland signed the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention)on 5th November 2015. Tusla is working collaboratively with service provider organisations, statutory...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Early Years Sector (4 May 2017)

Katherine Zappone: The Access and Inclusion Model (AIM), which is a new programme of supports to enable children with a disability to access and fully participate in the free pre-school programme, was introduced in June 2016 and is administered by Pobal on behalf of my Department. AIM supports children with disabilities to attend mainstream pre-school where they can learn and socialise with their peers. The...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: School Absenteeism (4 May 2017)

Katherine Zappone: The Educational Welfare Service of Tusla has advised that it does not hold the school attendance data in a format which enables Tusla to readily provide information for electoral divisions thus providing the level of detail requested for the years 2010 to 2016. Furthermore Tusla advises it would be exceedingly time-consuming to provide the information required as it would involve a manual...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child Care Costs (4 May 2017)

Katherine Zappone: The take-up of childcare subsidies depends not just on eligibility, but on parental demand for childcare, and on the availability of childcare places in local childcare facilities that are taking part in the relevant subsidy scheme. Differences between the expected take-up of CCS and TEC subsidies this September and the expected initial take-up in the first year of the Affordable...