Results 6,781-6,800 of 11,997 for speaker:Roderic O'Gorman

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: There will. We are working as quickly as possible to pass the legislation and undertake the administrative work to support the scheme. Obviously the legislation needs to be passed to support the scheme but we are working to get that done.

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: Yes, they can.

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: Additional staff will be necessary within the Department to oversee the scheme. An IT infrastructure will have to be created to support the application process. We will undertake an information campaign to make people aware of their rights. As the Deputy knows, we undertook a significant information campaign on foot of the Birth Information and Tracing Act 2022. It has come up in...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: We continue to engage with the religious institutions. As Deputy Cairns knows, I met them and made the point that it is important they make a substantial contribution to the overall scheme. These engagements are ongoing. I have always been very clear that I did not want the set-up of the scheme to be contingent or dependent on the conclusion of those negotiations. The scheme needs to be...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: I am working on passing legislation based on a specific Government decision. Obviously, legislation can be changed subsequently. Schemes can be changed subsequently if a decision is made. I do not want to speculate on where we are with the process right now.

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Adoption Authority of Ireland and Tusla have been provided with additional resources to increase the levels of staff and increase their systems, particularly IT, to be able to undertake their work under the birth information and tracing legislation. They are provided for under these specific heads. They are not coming from the mother and baby institution heads that we have already...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: With regard to Adoption Authority of Ireland's pay allocation, which is the key element, its pay increased by €1.1 million between 2022 and 2023. There was a small decrease, to which Deputy Cairns referred, in terms of its overall allocation. The main reason for this is that the big information campaign driven by Adoption Authority of Ireland which took place last year is not being...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: I would like to return briefly to the point on birth information and tracing legislation. I have a quarterly meeting with Tusla. I stressed to the outgoing chief executive and the interim chief executive the importance I place on Tusla fulfilling the obligations it has to rapidly meet people's request for information and the importance of the organisation doing all it can. We have provided...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: My understanding is that €121 million was the cost of bringing the subsidy from 50 cent up to €1.21.

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: We do not have that quite yet. We will have it later in the year because we also have to take account of the core funding and new funding. Not only have we made the NCS much bigger, we have obviously brought in core funding by brand new enlarged funding as well. We will provide a calculation on that and maybe discuss it later in the year.

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: There is a €9 million capital allocation for the early years sector for 2023.

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: I will flag that the grant scheme was advertised in the latter part of last year and the deadline has closed for that.

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: It has been very heavily subscribed. The €9 million is the improvement grant. Services had until mid-December to apply for it and the outcome for that will be provided in early March. Services will know in early March if they were successful in that regard. We will be running another capital scheme in the middle of this year for claiming next year in 2024. That will be looking...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Ministers, Deputies McEntee and Harris, are obviously working on the creation of this new agency, which will take over the functions Tusla currently has in terms of funding for refuges and services around the country. We used to be politically responsible for Tusla doing that. The political responsibility for that has now gone to the Department of Justice. Once established, the...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Revised) (8 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank Deputies for their questions today. I particularly thank my officials for joining me and for all the work that went into preparing the Revised Estimates.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Childcare Services (9 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the Deputy. Many childminders are currently excluded from registration and, therefore, from the national childcare scheme because of exemptions in the Child Care Act 1991. To bring all childminders within the scope of registration and the national childcare scheme subsidies requires an amendment to this Act. In line with the National Action Plan for Childminding 2021-2028, last week...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Childcare Services (9 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: We are planning to bring forward proposals for changes to the Child Care Act 1991 to Cabinet by the end of quarter 1. Those will be quite substantial and will include revising the law in the area of the taking of children into care because the 1991 legislation needs to be changed. Tusla's powers of inspection for centre-based childcare will also be included within that legislation. We will...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Childcare Services (9 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: I had a good meeting with Childminding Ireland three weeks ago, and earlier this week I wrote to it on foot of that meeting. Not only did I write to it but I also asked it to distribute a letter from me across childminders in its network setting out what we are doing with the childminding action plan and what the next steps are. I know, even from a couple of emails I got when the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Disability Services (9 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: I am taking this question on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte. A Government decision in December 2022 confirmed that the transfer of policy, functions and funding responsibility relating to specialist community-based disability services from the Minister for Health to me, as Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, would take place on 1 March of...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Disability Services (9 Feb 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: I know that the Deputy has advocated very strongly on these issues. I am looking forward, from 1 March, to taking on the responsibility for delivery of disability services for children and adults. The Deputy is absolutely right about the crucial issue of the assessment of needs. He knows the history of this. He knows that a new process had been adopted over a number of years. That was...