Results 3,441-3,460 of 7,359 for speaker:Katherine Zappone

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Early Childhood Care and Education Programmes (12 Dec 2017)

Katherine Zappone: It is important to be clear that there has been no withdrawal, or proposal to withdraw, any ECCE entitlement from children with disabilities. All children will be entitled to 76 weeks or 2 academic years of ECCE from September 2018. On Wednesday 6 December I announced that I have paused a decision on the upper age limit exemption for ECCE so that further consultation with parents can occur....

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Early Childhood Care and Education Programmes (12 Dec 2017)

Katherine Zappone: On Wednesday 6th December I announced that I have paused a decision on this matter so that further consultation with parents will occur. Since ECCE was introduced in 2010, approximately 500 children availed of the exemption each year, although for reasons set out below, it was expected that much fewer than this would have applied in 2018. This original decision to remove the overage...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child Care Services (12 Dec 2017)

Katherine Zappone: The Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) supports children with disabilities to reap the full benefits of free pre-school education. Its goal is to empower pre-school providers to deliver an inclusive pre-school experience. AIM is a child-centred and evidence-based model, involving seven levels of progressive support, moving from the universal to the targeted, based on the needs of the child...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Early Childhood Care and Education (12 Dec 2017)

Katherine Zappone: AIM supports children with disabilities to reap the full benefits of free pre-school education. Its goal is to empower pre-school providers to deliver an inclusive pre-school experience. AIM is a child-centred and evidence-based model, involving seven levels of progressive support, moving from the universal to the targeted, based on the needs of the child and the pre-school setting. AIM...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Early Childhood Care and Education Staff (12 Dec 2017)

Katherine Zappone: AIM supports children with disabilities to reap the full benefits of free pre-school education. Its goal is to empower pre-school providers to deliver an inclusive pre-school experience. AIM is a child-centred and evidence-based model, involving seven levels of progressive support, moving from the universal to the targeted, based on the needs of the child and the pre-school setting. AIM...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Early Childhood Care and Education (12 Dec 2017)

Katherine Zappone: It is important to be clear that there has been no withdrawal, or proposal to withdraw, any ECCE entitlement from children with disabilities. All children will be entitled to 76 weeks or 2 academic years of ECCE from September 2018. On Wednesday 6 December I announced that I have paused a decision on the upper age limit exemption for ECCE so that further consultation with parents can occur....

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Early Childhood Care and Education Standards (12 Dec 2017)

Katherine Zappone: My Department received a qualifications assessment application from the person named and a response issued to her on the 20th of October. DCYA officials indicated in the response that the individual should provide additional information if she is in a position to do so; to date DCYA has had no further contact from the person concerned. New regulations were introduced for the Early Years...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Data (12 Dec 2017)

Katherine Zappone: Tusla has advised that it currently employs 67 Senior Practitioner Social Workers and by the end of 2018 Tusla expects to appoint 130 Senior Social Work Practitioners in 2018. Information in relation to the estimated cost to Tusla per senior practitioner appointed is set out in the table below: Cost for a SW Senior Practitioner Basic €56,781 PRSI €6,104 Total Pay...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Aftercare Services (12 Dec 2017)

Katherine Zappone: I propose to take Questions Nos. 482 and 483 together. 1,914 young adults aged 18-22 were in receipt of aftercare services at the end of the third quarter 2017. An additional 75 persons aged 23-25 and upwards also received aftercare services. See the table below for a breakdown of this figure by area. Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, has informed me that it does not collate data centrally...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Early Childhood Care and Education (12 Dec 2017)

Katherine Zappone: I have committed to consulting further with parents of children with disabilities before a decision is made on the future of the over-age exemption for the ECCE scheme. Approximately 500 children have availed of the exemption every year since ECCE was introduced in 2010. My officials are working closely with the Department of Education and Skills in designing the consultation and also taking...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: School Completion Programme (12 Dec 2017)

Katherine Zappone: I believe that the School Completion Programme is critical to ensuring that children who are most at risk of early school leaving are supported to stay in education. However, I believe that it needs to be reformed to ensure that it delivers the best possible outcomes for children. To this end, I am examining carefully how best to strengthen it. Any reforms will be informed by the ESRI...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Departmental Contracts (12 Dec 2017)

Katherine Zappone: The Department of Children and Youth Affairs have a contract with the organisation concerned to provide the pilot Bail Supervision Scheme for a 2 year period following a public tender. This Department has no role in the operation of this organisation or in Human Resources within their organisation.

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Mother and Baby Homes Inquiries (12 Dec 2017)

Katherine Zappone: I welcome the opportunity to provide an update on the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes. The commission submitted a third interim report which I published last week, to which Senator Devine has just referred. The report, which is available on my Department's website, outlined the practical challenges the commission faced in meeting its initial deadline of 17 February...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Mother and Baby Homes Inquiries (12 Dec 2017)

Katherine Zappone: I am aware that both of those questions that are live. What I have indicated is that as a result of the initial facilitation process, out of which some of the issues Senator Devine has identified have been expressed again, we have decided that it would be really important to establish this collaborative forum which will report in six months. One of the areas it will be looking at will be to...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Community Childcare Subvention Programme (13 Dec 2017)

Katherine Zappone: The eligibility of the applying parent is determined by their status with the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection (DEASP) and certain other factors including medical cards or GP visit cards (for children over 6 only). The amount of the subvention received from my Department is determined by the parent’s DEASP status. It is current practice that when a DEASP payment...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (14 Dec 2017)

Katherine Zappone: My Department is working with the Department of Justice and Equality to ensure that all necessary arrangements are in place to fully comply with the provisions of the Second Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography so that Ireland can ratify the Optional Protocol as soon as possible. The recent enactment of the Sexual Offence Act (2017)...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Education Welfare Service Staff (14 Dec 2017)

Katherine Zappone: My Department has requested a reply from the Educational Welfare Service of Tusla to your question, we will forward the answer directly to you as soon as it becomes available.

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (14 Dec 2017)

Katherine Zappone: My Department is working with the Department of Justice and Equality to ensure that all necessary arrangements are in place to fully comply with the provisions of the Second Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography so that Ireland can ratify the Optional Protocol as soon as possible. The recent enactment of the Sexual Offence Act (2017)...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Commencement of Legislation (14 Dec 2017)

Katherine Zappone: My Department has responsibility for the following Acts, or parts of Acts, which have yet to be fully commenced, Youth Work Act 2001, the Child Care (Amendment) Act 2011, the Child Care (Amendment) Act 2015, the Children (Amendment) Act 2015 and the Adoption (Amendment) Act 2017. Youth Work Act 2001 The sections of the Youth Work Act 2001 yet to be commenced are sections 8 to 16, 19 to 23 and...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Early Childhood Care and Education (14 Dec 2017)

Katherine Zappone: I propose to take Questions Nos. 647 and 661 together. I have committed to consulting further with parents of children with disabilities before a decision is made on the future of the over-age exemption for the ECCE scheme. My officials are working closely with the Department of Education and Skills in designing the consultation and also taking advice from the Cross Sectoral Implementation...