Results 5,961-5,980 of 20,459 for speaker:Frances Fitzgerald

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Preschool Services (16 Jan 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programe was introduced in January 2010 and provides a free pre-school year to all eligible children before commencing primary school. Approximately 68,000 children availed of the free pre-school year in the 2012/2013 academic year and €175 million funding was made available to support the provision. It is expected that similar numbers...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Voluntary Sector Funding (16 Jan 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: The Department of Children and Youth Affairs provides funding directly to a wide range of community, voluntary and other organisations who have charitable status that are engaged in the provision of specific services to children and young people. The most significant share of the funding, which amounted to €249 million in 2011, €262 million in 2012 and €250 million in...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Departmental Reports (21 Jan 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: In order to deliver key commitments in relation to children and young people and to put in place a unified framework of policy, legislation and provision across Government in respect of children and young people, it is at times necessary to commission reports and utilise expertise from a range of expert individuals and bodies. My Department ensures that all reports commissioned are of direct...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Departmental Expenditure (21 Jan 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: No payments have been made by my Department to the consultancy firms mentioned by the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Health Reports (21 Jan 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) inspects High Support Units annually under Section 69 of the Child Care Act 1991. An unannounced inspection of a high support unit (HSU) in the Health Service Executive, Dublin North East (HSE DNE) was carried out on 1 - 2 October 2013. Of the eight recommendations made in the previous inspection, inspectors found that seven had either...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Remit (21 Jan 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: The Child and Family Agency (the Agency) seeks to provide the highest quality of Care at its Special Care Units in Dublin, Cork and Limerick. Standards of Care provision are constantly under review by a designated Monitoring Officer specifically assigned to this role. Children are place in Special Care under the jurisdiction of the High Court and all cases are reviewed on a monthly basis by...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: I thank the committee for this opportunity to discuss the 2014 Revised Estimates for Vote 40 of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. Under the Revised Estimates for 2014, my Department has been allocated funding of €997 million, which includes more than €955 million in current funding and €42 million in capital funding. When appropriation-in-aid receipts of...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: I am happy to respond.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: That is fine. I thank both Deputies for their comments, particularly the good wishes for the new agency. As I said, it is a historic development and there is a very strong team in place led by Mr. Gordon Jeyes and the management team. A huge process has taken place already. An implementation group has been running for well over a year and a half, chaired by the Secretary General who is...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: Yes. As I said, Mr. Jeyes has been working on that since last year and has been very clear about accountability. The arrangements which need to be made with service providers is spelled out in section 56 of the legislation. There are very detailed instructions for the agency and how it will carry out its business with the voluntary organisations. If the Deputies read it, they will see...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: The plan must be submitted to me by 31 January 2014. The board discussed it last week. In response to the Deputy's question, all services under the early childhood care and education, ECCE schemes have been required to adhere to the principles of Síolta and Aistear from the outset. The local child care committees provide assistance for the services to do this and use the online tools...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: Yes; the Minister of State, Deputy Alex White, is working on it.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: Deputy Sandra McLellan also raised the issue of the budget reductions. I hope I have made it clear that there is a budget. There are clear challenges not least of which are the cost of legal services and the adversarial nature of child care proceedings in court. Generally, there is significant legal representation. We will bring forward the guardian ad litemreform which will help in...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: I reiterate that very detailed work was done. We got great assistance in this regard. As Deputies can imagine, it is not the easiest thing in the world to disaggregate what was relevant to the Child and Family Agency from what was relevant to the other health budgets. That has been done following a rigorous process. A great deal of work was done by the team involved. I have to say they...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: I remind the Deputy that the Government allocated an additional €12 million for services for children. We separated out the funding that had previously been allocated by the HSE for children and families and allocated it without any deduction to the new agency. In fact, the Government's allocation for dealing with child protection services was increased by €12 million. That...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: I can inform the Deputy, in response to her last question, that we have received sanction from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to go ahead with the recruitment. Obviously, we will have to see how many staff need to be recruited this year. It will depend on the stage of completion. There will be a build-up towards the full use of the new units. We have got sanction to go...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: In the case of subhead B3, the early childhood care and education programme, we have been able to supply the budget that is needed every year for the last few years. It is based on the number of children on a per capita basis. The providers are getting their funding on the basis of the increased number of children. We have made available the budget that is necessary to cater for the...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: We will review the eligibility criteria for the community child care subvention, CCS, and child care employment and training support scheme, CETS, in the course of 2014. I have identified this as a priority because the schemes need to be reviewed. The Department is also developing, in conjunction with the Department of Social Protection, a new child care initiative which will provide 1,800...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: As I stated, the increased demand is coming from the community employment side, which is where our primary response to need will be. Some 950 community groups participate in the community employment scheme and 2,500 full-time equivalent child care places are provided under the CETS. Trainees contribute €25 per week and there is a capitation fee of €145 for each full-time child...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (21 Jan 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: I ask Deputy McLellan to consider the combined amounts provided in subheads B3 and B4 as they show an overall increase of €3 million for child care. What we are doing is redirecting the funding to the area of greatest demand, namely, the community employment schemes. This is the reason the allocation under subhead B4 has been reduced. The amount in question remains within the child...