Results 2,501-2,520 of 20,459 for speaker:Frances Fitzgerald

Written Answers — Children in Care: Children in Care (2 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: I have been advised by the HSE that an answer to the Deputy's Parliamentary Question No 473 of 27 September 2011 issued to the Deputy on 25th October, 2011.

Written Answers — Constitutional Amendments: Constitutional Amendments (2 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: The Programme for Government 2011 states that the Referendum on Children's Rights is a priority, and that the wording of the proposed referendum will be along the lines of that proposed by the All Party Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children. Since taking office, both myself and my officials staff of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs have had a number of...

Health Service Staff (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: In line with the programme for Government I am committed to delivering on the Ryan report implementation plan. Earlier this year I personally took over the chair of the Ryan report implementation group and I laid the second annual progress report before the Houses of the Oireachtas in July. While there are significant financial pressures on child and family services, my Department is...

Health Service Staff (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: I am committed to ensuring that the 60 posts are put in place. The Deputy's information is incorrect. To date, four of the posts have been filled, 11 candidates have accepted offers, in respect of which the necessary clearances are being processed. The remainder of the posts are at various stages of the recruitment process. As stated on the last occasion I answered the Deputy's question...

Health Service Staff (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: The total number of social workers in place as of 31 September 2011 is 2,429. The remainder of the 60 posts will be in place by the end of this year, which fulfils the Ryan implementation group recommendation.

Health Service Staff (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: I will communicate with the Deputy on the matter.

Children in Care (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: The HSE compiles monthly performance reports which provide an overall analysis of key performance data from finance, HR, hospital and primary and community services. These reports include a range of statistics in regard to children in care. A new performance indicator was introduced in 2011 to collect information on the number of young adults aged 18 to 21 years in receipt of an aftercare...

Children in Care (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: I thank Deputy Ó Caoláin for his question. I agree with him on the need for young people to continue to receive help. The Deputy might perhaps be reassured by some of the following information. A review of numbers was carried out by an external consultant. The audit date for this data was March 2011. I am informed that in March 2011 a total of 1,051 young people nationally were in...

Children in Care (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: Resources are an issue. There are problems because of the demands of the services when it comes to the base funding available for child and family services within the HSE. The question of priority must be addressed and better management and better inter-agency work. Quite a number of areas need to be addressed to answer the Deputy's question about resources. Ten additional after-care...

Child Poverty (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: The UNICEF report card published in 2010 shows that in terms of material inequality, Ireland is close to the OECD average. Ireland is ranked 13th, with the best performing country identified as Switzerland. In terms of inequalities in education and health outcomes, Ireland is ranked in second and seventh place, respectively, to the best performing countries. I am very glad to note this...

Child Poverty (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: The provision for the various income support systems in 2012 will be a matter for consideration by the Minister for Social Protection and the Government in the budgetary process. I appreciate the Deputy's point about the role of child benefit payments and the support it offers to families, particularly the families who are most vulnerable and most marginalised. I will work with other...

Children in Care (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: In January 2010, HIQA published Guidance for the Health Service Executive for the Review of Serious Incidents including Deaths of Children in Care. The guidance became operational from March 2010. The guidance required the HSE to establish a panel of appropriately skilled professionals, both internal and external, to review cases under specified criteria. According to the HIQA guidance,...

Children in Care (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: The death of every child is a tragedy and I offer every sympathy to the families whose children were reported upon by this review panel. It is interesting to note in the review that no case of death or serious incident was related to an action or inaction of the HSE child protection services. That is a very important point coming from this review and worth noting. It is not surprising,...

Family Support Services (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: There are 107 family resource centres throughout the country funded by the Family Support Agency. My Department assumed responsibility for the FSA when it was established earlier this year. I welcome the opportunity this provides to promote effective operational relationships between the family resource centres and other providers of services to children and families. The aim of the family...

Family Support Services (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: The Deputy's question relates to the Family Support Agency and family resource centres. The overall allocation to the FSA was €31.7 million in 2011, of which €16 million was allocated to the resource centre programme. Substantial funding is given to local centres and I wish to support them in whatever way possible, given budgetary constraints. The Deputy knows our budgetary constraints...

Family Support Services (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: The Deputy has raised the complex question of the reasons children come into care. It happens for a variety of reasons. Physical abuse is one of the reasons. Increasingly, neglect is the reason most children come into care. The financial pressures on families can have an impact on such neglect. Drink and drug issues are a significant factor in children coming into care at present....

Out of Hours Services (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: The HSE provides out of hours emergency services for children who are at risk. The service is provided in the greater Dublin area through the crisis intervention service and outside the greater Dublin area through the emergency place of safety service. The crisis intervention service provides an out of hours emergency social work service to young people under the age of 18 who are in...

Out of Hours Services (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: This has been spoken about for a long time, as the Deputy knows. We have received some elementary information from the two pilot projects. We have the beginning of an assessment of how they are operating. I need to wait until I hear back from the HSE oversight group on the recommendations before I decide how quickly we can move to a national roll-out. Obviously, there will be resource...

Out of Hours Services (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: While I do not have detailed figures, I am advised that activity has not been significant to date. I accept the Deputy's point that we should not over-rely on the take-up to date as one would expect it to be low given that it will take some time for the relevant or appropriate information to file down to those who need it and for the Garda to become more aware of the service. The fact that...

Out of Hours Services (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: The reports outline the latest position and plans for the future. I would be pleased to correspond with both Deputies on the information available to me and plans for the future in counties Donegal and Cork.