Results 6,141-6,160 of 20,459 for speaker:Frances Fitzgerald

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Inter-Country Adoptions (18 Feb 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: The expiration of declarations is covered under Section 41 (1) of the Adoption Act, 2010. The section provides that a declaration of eligibility and suitability expires after 24 months from the date of issuance of the declaration or after a further period of not more than 12 months that the Adoption Authority may specify. I understand that at the time of drafting of the legislation it was...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Security Checks (18 Feb 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: My Department has not been swept for electronic or any other type of surveillance or bugging equipment since establishment in June 2011

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Departmental Bodies Establishment (18 Feb 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: The Child and Family Agency is the only organisation/agency established by my Department since its establishment in June 2011. The Child and Family Agency, established on the first of January 2014 under the Child and Family Agency Act 2013, has statutory responsibility for services previously provided by the National Educational Welfare Board and the Family Support Agency. In addition, the...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child Care Services Provision (18 Feb 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: Funding is made available by my Department to support a number of childcare programmes which provide a range of supports to parents of pre-school and after-school children. These programmes include the Community Childcare Subvention (CCS) programme, the Childhood Education and Training Support (CETS) programme and the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme. The CCS programme...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Departmental Programmes (18 Feb 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: My Department has provided funding of €49,282 to the Meitheal Programme in Co. Wexford for the 2013/2014 school year. This funding was provided under the School Completion Programme following the consideration and approval of a service proposal received from Wexford Local Development in relation to the Meitheal programme. The School Completion Programme (SCP) is a targeted intervention...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Departmental Staff Remuneration (18 Feb 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: An increment is an increase in pay for which provision is made in a pay scale. Prior to the Haddington Road Agreement, increments were granted annually provided an officer's services are satisfactory and in accordance with Finance Circular 9/1987. Revised arrangements under Haddington Road (Circular 8/2013) provide generally for an extension of the interval period from twelve to fifteen...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: State Bodies Issues (18 Feb 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: I am advised that none of the State bodies under the remit of my Department subscribe to the daily inflation data for Ireland collected by the company concerned.

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Juvenile Offenders (19 Feb 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: I understand that my colleague, the Minister for Justice and Equality, is providing a separate answer in relation to children detained in adult prison facilities. I have responsibility for the children detention schools under Part 10 of the Children Act, 2001. The three children detention schools in the State are located in Oberstown, Lusk, Co Dublin and comprise Trinity House School,...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: State Bodies Expenditure (19 Feb 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: In preparation for the establishment of the Child and Family Agency on 1st January 2014 and in order to establish a single brand identity, the HSE Children and Family Services decided to formally engage external support. A tendering process was entered into by Children and Family Services and three companies were invited to make presentations. Creative Inc were selected and contracted for...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Data Protection (20 Feb 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: My Department is currently launching a new records management protocol and database system to manage all records held / created within the Department. The role of Information Officer will be incorporated into this records management function.

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Adoption Legislation (20 Feb 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: I have highlighted previously the Constitutional and legal barriers to providing access to adoption records, including birth certificates, without the consent of the birth mother. The Adoption (Information and Tracing ) Bill will address this matter but the legislature will be constrained in the nature of any access which can be granted to adoption records by these legal issues. My Department...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Inter-Country Adoptions (20 Feb 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: Efforts are ongoing in my Department in relation to a bilateral agreement on intercountry adoption between Ireland and the Russian Federation. Following my invitation to the Russian Ministry of Education and Science in August 2013 , a delegation of Russian officials travelled to Ireland in October 2013 for discussions on a bilateral agreement on intercountry adoption between Ireland and the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Child Care in Ireland: Discussion (20 Feb 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: I thank the committee for devoting the morning to this discussion on child care. It is a very important topic and a priority for me as Minister to address the range of issues which the committee has been considering this morning. Very soon after becoming Minister I stated that I wanted a focus on early years because it has been lacking in policy, funding and approach. Child care is a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Child Care in Ireland: Discussion (20 Feb 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: Yes. I would like the presentations from this morning to be given to the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform and the Joint Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. This is a very good place in which to start because it is the Joint Committee on Health and Children. There is no question but that the issues are cross-departmental. It is a whole of Government...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Child Care in Ireland: Discussion (20 Feb 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: That would be welcome. As Minister for Children and Youth Affairs and as somebody who has worked, as have many members of the committee, for many years to develop a child care service that both presenters this morning would like to see, we are very familiar with the issues and many people around the table have done much work on these issues, including myself, over the years. Clearly, there...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Child Care in Ireland: Discussion (20 Feb 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: In terms of the early years investment, we now have for the first time - from the ESRI study on work and others - results of research on Irish children and the benefits of early years intervention. We have a long way to go before there will be a shared understanding of that at societal level. We have not had sufficient focus on early years. While we say we are very child centred, and while...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Child Care in Ireland: Discussion (20 Feb 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: The issue in regard to childminders is actually broader than the point Deputy Troy is making on staff who had a particular responsibility for childminding. It is interesting that, during the period when there were people with particular responsibility for working with childminders, there were still only 1,200 childminders registered out of perhaps 30,000 or 40,000. With regard to getting...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Child Care in Ireland: Discussion (20 Feb 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: No, it is still in place. Those who are looking for child-care services want full-day care more than they do after-school care. Perhaps they make their own arrangements for after school. There is also perhaps the cost issue, but it was funded. On Deputy Fitzpatrick's point about those who are working in the sector, we want staff to be qualified. We will demand that, by September 2014...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Child Care in Ireland: Discussion (20 Feb 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: In the budget, €1.5 million was allocated for this year. It is quite significant. There has been a strong take-up already. We also gave funding to a number of the national organisations. When I meet those from the sector, they tell me that they are delighted to have the opportunity to get this subsidy and to do the training, and they are hugely motivated to do it. Many in the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Child Care in Ireland: Discussion (20 Feb 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: I am glad to have the opportunity to focus on the implementation of the early years and child care quality agenda because it is at the heart of the discussion we are having today. A number of points that are relevant to this section of the committee's deliberations already have been made. I refer in particular to the points on the early years and the neglect of this sector. This may seem a...