Results 5,501-5,520 of 20,459 for speaker:Frances Fitzgerald

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (24 Oct 2013)

Frances Fitzgerald: I move amendment No. 57: In page 44, subsection (8), to delete lines 31 to 36 and substitute the following:"(8) In this section "service supplemental to services provided by the Agency" means--(a) the provision of a community development resource to promote child and family support services, or (b) activities which are ancillary to child and family support services provided by the Agency or...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (24 Oct 2013)

Frances Fitzgerald: Yes. To be clear, it has the same meaning as was there before, but it provides greater clarity. This can be done by the agency.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (24 Oct 2013)

Frances Fitzgerald: To clarify, is the Deputy speaking on amendment No. 60 or 61?

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (24 Oct 2013)

Frances Fitzgerald: This amendment concerns individual referrals. Section 69 states: "Nothing in this Part prohibits or prevents any person who is dissatisfied with a recommendation made or step taken in response to a complaint under this Part or with a review under this Part from referring the complaint to the Ombudsman or the Ombudsman for Children." Is it correct that the Deputy wants to add a reference to HIQA?

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (24 Oct 2013)

Frances Fitzgerald: HIQA does not deal with individual complaints.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (24 Oct 2013)

Frances Fitzgerald: The Health Information and Quality Authority, or HIQA, has a monitoring and inspection function under the Health Act 2007. It also has the power to make recommendations in respect of how services are provided and follow up on implementation of its recommendations. As the Deputy knows, I asked HIQA to take responsibility for child welfare and protection services and we have had several very...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (24 Oct 2013)

Frances Fitzgerald: With regard to the amendment, it is not a good idea to give HIQA an overarching role in all the functions of the agency and that is not the way to progress. My Department and the Department of Health has given HIQA responsibility for certain areas, including the sectors I mentioned in child protection and children's services, and that is the way to progress. It is doing very effective work...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (24 Oct 2013)

Frances Fitzgerald: There is a mechanism to do that. The reason we can ask HIQA to do the work it is doing in respect of child protection services is that it is already in the HIQA legislation under the Health Act, under which it can get involved in anything to do with Child Care Acts of 1991 and 2001 and in a range of other areas as defined in that Act. Clearly, if there were other areas it was precluded from...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (24 Oct 2013)

Frances Fitzgerald: I move amendment No. 62: In page 50, subsection (1), lines 34 and 35, to delete “subsections (2) and (3)” and substitute “subsection (2)”.Amendment No. 63 provides for the deletion of section 72(2) of the Bill as published and amendment No. 62 is consequential on the deletion of subsection (2), which will effect a re-numbering of the subsections within section 72....

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (24 Oct 2013)

Frances Fitzgerald: It is technical, but I had to outline the details.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (24 Oct 2013)

Frances Fitzgerald: I have brought forward an explicit reference to family support in section 8, which is the key section outlining the functions of the new agency. I have done that, as I discussed here a number of times, to bring greater visibility, to give clarity and assurance and to allow for consolidation of the opportunities to do family support work. I am approaching that by way of putting it into the...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (24 Oct 2013)

Frances Fitzgerald: It is in subsection (3), as amended. That is the amendment I brought forward previously. It is the one that references family support and preventative services. I am not bringing forward the specific format which applied previously to the Family Support Agency - for example, the format of grant giving and the detailed description of that, which is outlined if one looks at the Family...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (24 Oct 2013)

Frances Fitzgerald: I have introduced a very broad amendment.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (24 Oct 2013)

Frances Fitzgerald: I refer to amendments Nos. 7 and 8. I spoke about encouraging the effective functioning of families. I stated that the agency would provide preventative family support services aimed at promoting the welfare of children. I referred to care and protection for victims of domestic sexual violence and services relating to the psychological welfare of children and their families. We have...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (24 Oct 2013)

Frances Fitzgerald: If we look at the functions the Family Support Agency had and at the functions the new agency will have, one will see that the functions outlined in the Family Support Agency Act 2001 are effectively covered by the range of functions the new agency will have, apart from family mediation, which is now elsewhere. The functions described in the Family Support Agency Act of 2001 are effectively...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (24 Oct 2013)

Frances Fitzgerald: The Deputy refers to family resource centres, but section 8 has been specifically crafted to deal with that issue. Subsection (d) reads as follows: "maintain and develop support services, including support services in local communities, relating to the functions specified in paragraph (a), (b) or (c). " The phrase "support services in local communities" clearly refers to family resource...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (24 Oct 2013)

Frances Fitzgerald: I point out to Deputy Ó Caoláin that another amendment we agreed today dealt with the provision of a community development resource to promote child and family support services. Also, part of section 8 contains quite a lot of detail about grant-giving. Section 59 goes into some detail about how assistance can be provided by the new agency under a grant scheme. The Family Support...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (24 Oct 2013)

Frances Fitzgerald: I appreciate that, but-----

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (24 Oct 2013)

Frances Fitzgerald: I move amendment No. 63: In page 50, lines 36 to 39, to delete subsection (2).

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (24 Oct 2013)

Frances Fitzgerald: I move amendment No. 64: In page 52, lines 43 to 45, to delete all words from and including “, insofar” in lines 43 and 44 down to and including “section 72,” in line 45.