Results 5,021-5,040 of 11,754 for speaker:Roderic O'Gorman

Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (15 Jun 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I move amendment No. 75: In page 75, to delete lines 31 to 37.

Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (15 Jun 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I move amendment No. 76: In page 76, between lines 23 and 24, to insert the following: “(3) A relevant Minister shall, for the purpose of section 99(5), notify the Director concerned in writing of the dissolution day at least 6 months in advance of that day.”. Amendments Nos. 76, 77 and 78 are mine, while amendment No. 79 is from Deputies Funchion and Ward. This was an...

Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (15 Jun 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I move amendment No. 77: In page 79, line 1, after “Minister,” to insert “at least 12 weeks”.

Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages (15 Jun 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I move amendment No. 78: In page 79, to delete lines 12 to 14 and substitute the following: “(7) A relevant Minister shall, within 6 weeks of receipt of a report under subsection (5), cause copies of that report to be laid before each House of the Oireachtas.”.

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (15 Jun 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: Part 4 of the Bill is very important for providing answers to family members of children who died in institutions. It provides for access to records for the family of those children who died in a mother and baby home or county home institution. The necessity for these provisions featured in the pre-legislative scrutiny recommendations. They were not in the original draft Schedule to the...

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (15 Jun 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: The concern is with respect to the release of information about a child who has died. With respect to the parent of that child, there is personal information and shared identify information in terms of the release of the information about the child. That is why the parent is first in the hierarchy in the release of that information. If the parent is deceased, it is open to a sibling to...

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (15 Jun 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: Part 5 provides for Tusla and the authority to deliver a tracing services. Tracing will be carried out to locate individuals for the purposes of contact or the sharing of information. The tracing service is available to persons over the age of 18 years. An application for a tracing service can be made by a relevant person and by categories of relatives set out in sections 32(6) and (7)....

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (15 Jun 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I am not in a position to speak to the amendments that were ruled out of order. While I cannot accept amendments Nos. 38 and 40, I hope I can provide the Senators with some reassurance in terms of the work we are doing to ensure that the public information campaign is designed in as user-friendly a manner as possible. The Adoption Authority of Ireland has already engaged with the National...

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (15 Jun 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: This amendment inserts an explicit reference in section 60 to the international component of the public information campaign. Having listened to Senators' views on this matter on Committee Stage and recognising the importance of the information campaign and that it must reach those living in other jurisdictions, it is appropriate that the primary legislation should reference the...

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (15 Jun 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I fully agree with the Senator that everybody should be able to use their rights under the GDPR to make a subject access request. I assure the Senators that the Bill does not restrict in any way a person's right to apply for his or her information through the alternative route of a subject access request. We do restrict GDPR rights in a very limited way in the legislation, as set out in...

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (15 Jun 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: While I understand the spirit in which this amendment has been brought, I am not in a position to accept it. Counselling provisions, as currently drafted within the legislation, allow for the broad spectrum of counselling support to be provided as required and requested by a person, and also allow for more urgent cases to be prioritised. As I flagged on Committee Stage, the National...

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (15 Jun 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I propose this amendment further to commitments I made on Committee Stage in response to Senator Boyhan’s amendment. A key part of bringing forward any legislation is to provide for a review of the legislation to ensure it operates as intended, is sufficient and is robust. On Report Stage in the Dáil, I brought an amendment to reduce the timeframe for review to two years. This...

Seanad: Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (15 Jun 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank Senator Boyhan for his comments and leadership in this area. As he said, this is a significant moment. We are one stage away from passing this legislation and finally and conclusively dealing with the wrongful denial of people's identity rights over many decades in this State. In this legislation, we have finally found a way to provide a right for each person to full and unredacted...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Ukraine War (14 Jun 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine on 24 February, and the invoking of the temporary protection Directive by the European Union shortly afterwards, my Department has worked intensively as part of the cross-governmental response to the Ukraine crisis. The operational challenges brought about by responding to the conflict are significant. Our country has never experienced an influx of...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Ukraine War (14 Jun 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: Please see below breakdown of persons admitted to Ireland as refugees including their country of origin from 2016 to 2021, in tabular form as requested by the Deputy: 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Iraq 63 23 5 19 7 Syria 531 771 ...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (14 Jun 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: The availability of high-quality early learning and childcare that is affordable and accessible is a key Government priority. Since 2015, significant increases in State investment in early learning and childcare has given rise to a substantial growth in the numbers of children participating in these services. More than 100,000 children now participate on the universal pre-school programme...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (14 Jun 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: When first introduced, the ECCE Programme was delivered over 38 weeks in a given ECCE programme year and children were required to be between the ages of 3 years and 2 months and 4 years and 7 months in September in the year they enrolled. The entry age has since been decreased on two occasions, the first in 2016, when it was reduced from 3 years and 2 months to 3 years of age and the number...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence (14 Jun 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: The response to Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence (DSGBV) is a cross Departmental and multi-Agency issue. Under the Child and Family Agency Act 2013, Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, has statutory responsibility for the care and protection of victims of DSGBV. Tusla is funded from my Department through Vote 40. The Taoiseach, Minister McEntee and myself have worked intensively...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Parental Leave (14 Jun 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1166 and 1198 together. As you are aware, provision has been made in Budget 2022 to increase the number of weeks of Parent’s Leave and Benefit available to eligible parents from five weeks to seven weeks from July 2022. This will be introduced by way of Regulation as provided for under the Parent's Leave and Benefit Act 2019 (as amended). It has been...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (14 Jun 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1167, 1201 and 1202 together. I firmly believe that the level of pay for early years educators and school-age childcare practitioners should reflect the value of their work for children, for families, for society and the economy. The most recent available data indicates the average hourly wage for non-managerial staff in the sector in 2021 was €12.60,...