Results 6,381-6,400 of 20,459 for speaker:Frances Fitzgerald

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Adoption Services Provision (8 Apr 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: The Adoption Authority has advised me that they endeavour to reply to all communications in line with the Authority's Customer Charter. The Authority however have indicated that the complexity of issues raised may necessitate administrative and or legal investigation which can prove time consuming. The Authority's Customer Charter is available on their website www.aai.gov.ie

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Adoption Legislation (8 Apr 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: The Adoption Act 2010 has been in operation for nearly three years now. Since the implementation of the Act, as is often the case with complex legislation, issues have arisen in relation to the operation of the legislation and in the circumstances I think it is timely to consider a review of policy matters. Given the range and complexity of the issues this will require scoping and...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Adoption Legislation (8 Apr 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: I propose to take Questions Nos. 539 to 543, inclusive, together. I have asked the Adoption Authority to reply directly to the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Adoption Services Provision (8 Apr 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: I propose to take Questions Nos. 544 and 545 together. I have asked the Adoption Authority to reply directly to the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Adoption Legislation (8 Apr 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: The Adoption Act, 2010, which entered into force on 1 November 2010, gives force of law to the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption. In April 2013 I streamlined the assessment process for those seeking to transfer from declarations of eligibility and suitability to adopt which are due to expire before the 31st of October 2013...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Investigations (8 Apr 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: Foster Care Services in the former Local Health Area known as Dublin North West have been inspected by HIQA three times since September 2009. The most recent inspection took place in October 2012. Significant progress has been made since earlier inspections, however inspectors found that some deficits identified had not been rectified. In February 2013, the Minister for Children and Youth...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Parliamentary Questions Costs (8 Apr 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: The cost of answering a Parliamentary Question and indeed the time taken to answer all questions will vary considerably according to the nature of the question asked. No staff in my Department are assigned full time to dealing with Parliamentary Questions. Parliamentary Questions are dealt with, as the need arises, by the staff in the sections dealing with the particular issue(s) raised in...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Youth Services Funding (8 Apr 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: My Department administers a range of funding schemes and programmes to support the provision of youth services to young people throughout the country including those from disadvantaged communities. These schemes include the Youth Service Grant Scheme under which funding is provided to support 31 national and major regional youth organisations. Targeted supports for disadvantaged,...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Early Child Care Education (8 Apr 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme provides a free pre-school year to all eligible children. Children are eligible to avail of the free pre-school year where they are aged more than 3 years 2 months and less than 4 years 7 months at 1 September in the relevant year. Children born between 2 February 2010 and 30 June 2011 will qualify for the free pre-school year in...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Adoption Legislation (8 Apr 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: I fully appreciate that the desire to know one's identity, or to re-establish contact with a child, is very fundamental and entirely reasonable. I acknowledge that the existing procedures in the area of information and tracing, both legislative and administrative, are not ideal and I have been anxious to see improvement in this regard. As I have stated on a number of occasions it is...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Staff (9 Apr 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: The Child and Family Agency, TUSLA, was established on 1 January 2014 and operational arrangements were completed in advance of this date to ensure the smooth transition of services provision, staff and service management. This included the transfer of staff from the Health Service Executive, the National Educational Welfare Board and the Family Support Agency. I am informed by the Agency...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Remit (9 Apr 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: The Child and Family Agency which was established on 1 January, 2014, is in the process of consolidating its services. The provision of counselling services is currently under consideration in the context of services previously provided by the Family Support Agency and which now come under the remit of the Child and Family Agency. In this regard, the Agency intends to review and streamline...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Early Child Care Education (9 Apr 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: Prior to the introduction of the free pre-school year under the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme in 2010 there was no qualification requirement for staff working directly with children in the childcare sector. The current requirement under the ECCE programme is that pre-school leaders must hold a major award in early childhood care and education at FETAC Level 5 or...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Adoption Services Provision (10 Apr 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: As this is a service matter for which the Adoption Authority has responsibility, I have asked the Authority to reply directly to the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child and Family Agency Remit (10 Apr 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: Responsibility for the funding of the Rape Crisis Centres and Refuges previously funded by the HSE became the responsibility of the new Child and Family Agency upon its establishment on 1stJanuary, 2014. In 2013 the HSE spent over €17 million on the provision of domestic and sexual violence services. This included the funding of 60 services throughout the country comprising:- -...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child Care Services Regulation (10 Apr 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: I propose to take Questions Nos. 168 and 169 together. Pre-school services are governed by Part VII of the Child Care Act 1991 and by the Child Care (Pre-School Services) (No 2) Regulations 2006. The Explanatory Guide to the Child Care (Pre-School Services) (No 2) Regulations 2006 will be replaced by new National Quality Standards which are being introduced later this year. The new...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child Care Services Funding (10 Apr 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: The Early Years Capital Programme 2014, which I recently announced, provides €2.5 million for maintenance and upgrade of community/not-for-profit child care services. The new capital programme, which will be administered by Pobal on behalf of my Department, opened for applications on the 7th April 2014 and the closing date for applications is the 7th May 2014. Full details of the...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: National Lottery Funding Applications (10 Apr 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: The operational arrangements including eligibility criteria for the administration and implementation of the National Lottery Scheme in 2014 is being finalised by my Department at the present time and the related information will be available on the Department's website (www.dcya.gov.ie) in the near future. The overall allocation for the scheme in 2014 is €910,000.

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Youth Cafes Expenditure (10 Apr 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: In recent years there has been a significant investment in the development of youth café facilities in Ireland which has been made possible, in the main, through the provision of capital funding to my Department. In 2013 a capital allocation of € 1.5 million was made available to my Department for the Youth Café Scheme and some 30 new youth café projects were approved...

Topical Issue Debate: Children and Family Services (15 Apr 2014)

Frances Fitzgerald: I thank Deputy Ó Snodaigh for raising this issue. The report is an important and impressive evaluation of the Bringing It All Back Home project. As Deputy Ó Snodaigh said, it was a project of the canal communities family welfare initiative. This is an inter-agency consortium. I fully agree with what Deputy Ó Snodaigh said in respect of the inter-agency arrangement. It is...