Results 3,741-3,760 of 20,459 for speaker:Frances Fitzgerald

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Child and Family Support Agency Establishment (26 Sep 2012)

Frances Fitzgerald: As I said, the new agency will have approximately 4,000 staff. We have established a shadow agency - an agency within an agency, in effect - within the HSE. Mr. Jeyes has been managing that process over the last year. We have reduced the number of managers from 34 to 16. We have provided for more direct accountability to Mr. Jeyes as manager. Those on the front line are now in much...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Child and Family Support Agency Establishment (26 Sep 2012)

Frances Fitzgerald: There will certainly be political accountability. The Government has yet to make a decision on the exact model of governance for the agency. Obviously, that will form part of the legislation, which will be brought to the Dáil before December. The Deputy will be aware that the task force which examined the various forms of governance in operation among international child protection...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Children in Care (26 Sep 2012)

Frances Fitzgerald: Section 45 of the Child Care Act 1991 places a statutory duty on the HSE to form a view on whether each person leaving care has a need for assistance. If it forms such a view, it is required to provide services in accordance with the legislation and subject to resources. Under the 1995 child care regulations , the HSE is required to consider a child's need for assistance, in accordance with...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Children in Care (26 Sep 2012)

Frances Fitzgerald: I appreciate the Deputy's interest in this issue and the reason for it. I share his view of the vulnerability of young people leaving care. We had the figure in 2010 of 2,000 young people leaving care. There is no question that there have been developments since, although I am not complacent about the matter. I will have to come back to the Deputy on the number of aftercare staff who have...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Children in Care (26 Sep 2012)

Frances Fitzgerald: The Deputy will be interested to know that, for example, there are 614 young people between the ages of 18 and 21 years in receipt of aftercare and involved in education and training courses. There has clearly been a change in terms of the awareness of the needs of this group. Of course, it is important to point out that not every young person leaving care will be in need of aftercare....

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Budget 2013 (26 Sep 2012)

Frances Fitzgerald: As the Deputy will be aware, the Government is engaged in consideration of budget 2013 and it would be inappropriate for me to comment in detail on budgetary discussions. My Department works in close partnership with other Departments on a range of cross-cutting issues in regard to both policy and provision as they relate to children and young people. I also point to the fact that my...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Budget 2013 (26 Sep 2012)

Frances Fitzgerald: I thank the Deputy, who makes a reasonable point with regard to the cross-departmental nature of many of the services that affect children. Another way of looking at that is to ask how we should organise our services so that we get the best delivery for children. If the Deputy has not read the task force report on child and family services and how they should operate under the new agency, I...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Budget 2013 (26 Sep 2012)

Frances Fitzgerald: The new agency must be established by legislation, which will be before the House. The governance of the new agency will form part of that legislation when it is presented for debate before December. The Government has yet to take some decisions regarding the new agency. In response to the question of accountability that the Deputy raises, it will be far easier to achieve accountability...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Child Care Costs (26 Sep 2012)

Frances Fitzgerald: As Minister for Children and Youth Affairs I have prioritised early years care and education. International evidence shows that early intervention can improve outcomes for children and families, particularly with regard to emotional, cognitive and social development. However, child care takes many forms, consisting not only of early years interventions but also of services such as...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Child Care Costs (26 Sep 2012)

Frances Fitzgerald: I share Deputy Troy's view on the provision of child care facilities. I have worked over many years to ensure that parents have proper child care available to them. What has happened in this country in the past ten years is that instead of delivering a universal free service the money was put into, for example, the child care supplement, which was then withdrawn. A total of €1.2...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Child Care Costs (26 Sep 2012)

Frances Fitzgerald: The first thing I have done, which is important given the budgetary situation I inherited, is to ensure I got the extra budget I needed to keep the ECCE scheme available as a universal service for all three to four year olds. I also ensured that we can continue to provide the community childcare subvention programme and the CETS programme which assist parents in education and training. As...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Children in Care (26 Sep 2012)

Frances Fitzgerald: Under the Child Care Act 1991, the Health Service Executive has a duty to promote the welfare of children who are not receiving adequate care or protection. The policy of the HSE is to place children in care settings, preferably in foster care, as close as possible to their home and community. A total of 6,259 children were in the care of the state in July 2012, the vast majority of whom...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Children in Care (26 Sep 2012)

Frances Fitzgerald: We accept that on occasion we must send children abroad for highly specialised care in medically complex cases, for example to Great Ormond Street Hospital, because it and others are global centres of excellence. Other countries also send children there. We must accept that for children with highly complex and challenging behavioural difficulties sometimes their best possible care can be...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Children in Care (26 Sep 2012)

Frances Fitzgerald: I refer to the Deputy's point on care. What these young people are receiving is not simply residential care. The reason I compared it to Great Ormond Street is that they are getting the kind of treatments and care and psychological interventions that are simply not available to them here. I assure the Deputy the social workers are in contact with the children and do visit them. The reason...

Other Questions: United Nations Conventions (26 Sep 2012)

Frances Fitzgerald: I propose to take Questions Nos. 6 and 8 together. When the third optional protocol to the convention was opened for signature by member states in February 2012, I announced that it was my intention to sign the protocol on behalf of Ireland as soon as possible. My Department is currently finalising the State’s combined third and fourth reports to the UN Committee on the Rights of the...

Other Questions: United Nations Conventions (26 Sep 2012)

Frances Fitzgerald: I thank the Deputy for the question. It is on our agenda. We intend to ratify the second protocol as quickly as we can and move to the third one. I would think we will be in a position to do this in the coming months. On the second protocol, I am waiting for some legislation on which the Department of Justice and Equality is working. I will bring a memorandum to the Government on it with...

Other Questions: United Nations Conventions (26 Sep 2012)

Frances Fitzgerald: The legislation is being actively worked on by the Department of Justice and Equality. I have had a discussion with the Minister about the protocol and it is something I would be very keen to do. It complements the work we are doing at a constitutional level, yet it is a practical measure that we need to sign. We await the legislation the Minister will bring forward. I do not have a...

Other Questions: Child and Family Support Agency Establishment (26 Sep 2012)

Frances Fitzgerald: This is a similar question to the one Deputy Robert Troy asked earlier on the establishment of the child and family support agency. I did not get to make a number of points in reply on the back-drop to the establishment of the agency and the other issues we need to pursue as we establish it. One I have mentioned is the consistency of the child protection services in that the assessments and...

Other Questions: Child and Family Support Agency Establishment (26 Sep 2012)

Frances Fitzgerald: The task force recommended that the new agency have a board structure, although it made a number of recommendations regarding the powers of the Minister and a strengthened role for the Department in undertaking policy development and performance oversight vis-à-vis the new agency. We will have an opportunity to discuss that issue when I bring the legislation to the House. The core...

Other Questions: Child and Family Support Agency Establishment (26 Sep 2012)

Frances Fitzgerald: The date of transfer of services is 1 January 2013. We will have work to do in the Dáil in advance of that date, but we have said all along that the agency will begin as a separate entity from 1 January 2013. It should progress, depending on the introduction of legislation in the House and the making of decisions on the governance structure and its development. It is clear that the...