Results 681-700 of 18,442 for speaker:Brendan Smith

Hospital Services. (12 Mar 2008)

Brendan Smith: I thank Deputies Hayes and McGrath for raising this issue. I am taking this adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney. The provision of services at South Tipperary General Hospital and across the south-east region in general is the responsibility of the Health Service Executive. The Government is committed to providing a high quality...

Sports Capital Programme. (12 Mar 2008)

Brendan Smith: I thank Deputy Enright for raising this important issue. I am taking this adjournment debate on behalf of the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Deputy Brennan, who is unavoidably absent. The social and economic benefits of sport are acknowledged by this Government and are reflected in the unprecedented level of Government funding for sport. The level of funding available for spending on...

Written Answers — Health Services: Health Services (12 Mar 2008)

Brendan Smith: The Deputy's question relates to the management and delivery of health and social services, which are the responsibility of the Health Service Executive under the Health Act 2004. Accordingly, my Department has requested the Parliamentary Affairs Division of the Executive to arrange to have the matter investigated and to have a reply issued directly to the Deputy.

Written Answers — Child Care Services: Child Care Services (12 Mar 2008)

Brendan Smith: As the Deputy will be aware, I have responsibility for the National Child care Investment Programme 2006 — 2010 (NCIP) which will invest €575 million over 5 years in developing child care services. I understand that the application in question for capital grant funding under the NCIP was not successful as it did not meet the value for money benchmark set under the NCIP. A request for a...

Written Answers — Foreign Adoptions: Foreign Adoptions (2 Apr 2008)

Brendan Smith: Adoption is a service for children who are in need of a permanent home. My Department and I are of the view that intercountry adoption should be child centred, that is, in all stages of the process the child's interests must be paramount. As such, there are a number of statutory procedures regulating intercountry adoption. All prospective adoptive parents must be assessed initially by the HSE...

Written Answers — Child Care Services: Child Care Services (2 Apr 2008)

Brendan Smith: As the Deputy will be aware, I have responsibility for the National Childcare Investment Programme 2006 — 2010 (NCIP), which will invest €575 million over 5 years, with €358 million of this in capital grant aid for childcare services. The NCIP came into effect in January 2006, and aims to provide a proactive response to the development of quality childcare supports and services, which...

Written Answers — Child Care Services: Child Care Services (2 Apr 2008)

Brendan Smith: As the Deputy will be aware, I have responsibility for the National Childcare Investment Programme 2006 — 2010 (NCIP) which will invest €575 million over 5 years. I understand from enquiries I have made that the service in question applied for interim NCIP staffing funding of €4,800 which was declined last September as their application had not demonstrated sufficient ability to...

Written Answers — Child Care Services: Child Care Services (2 Apr 2008)

Brendan Smith: I propose to take Questions Nos. 318 to 320, inclusive, together. As the Deputy will be aware, I have responsibility for the National Childcare Investment Programme 2006-2010 (NCIP) under which the Community Childcare Subvention Scheme (CCSS) was introduced in January of this year. The CCSS replaced the previous staffing support grant scheme which was implemented under the EU co-funded Equal...

Written Answers — Child Care Services: Child Care Services (2 Apr 2008)

Brendan Smith: As the Deputy will be aware, I have responsibility for the National Childcare Investment Programme 2006-2010 (NCIP) which will invest €575 million over 5 years in developing child care services. The NCIP came into effect in January 2006 and aims to provide a proactive response to the development of quality child care supports and services, which are grounded in an understanding of local...

Written Answers — Inter-Country Adoptions: Inter-Country Adoptions (2 Apr 2008)

Brendan Smith: I propose to take Questions Nos. 383 and 384 together. The Deputy refers to the proposed legislation to ratify the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption. The Convention and the legislation to ratify it is not aimed at preventing intercountry adoptions between countries. The purpose of legislating and ratifying the Hague Convention...

Written Answers — Child Care Services: Child Care Services (2 Apr 2008)

Brendan Smith: As the Deputy will be aware, I have responsibility for the National Childcare Investment Programme 2006-2010 (NCIP), which will invest €575 million over 5 years, with €358 million of this in capital grant aid for child care services. The NCIP came into effect from in January 2006, and aims to provide a proactive response to the development of quality child care supports and services,...

Written Answers — Children in Care: Children in Care (2 Apr 2008)

Brendan Smith: The Deputy's question relates to the management and delivery of health and social services, which are the responsibility of the Health Service Executive under the Health Act 2004. Accordingly, my Department has requested the Parliamentary Affairs Division of the Executive to arrange to have the matter investigated and to have a reply issued directly to the Deputy.

Written Answers — Child Care Services: Child Care Services (8 Apr 2008)

Brendan Smith: As the Deputy will be aware, I have responsibility for the National Child-care Investment Programme 2006 — 2010 (NCIP), which will invest €575 million over 5 years, with €358 million of this in capital grant aid for child-care services. I understand that the Group in question has applied for €1.112 million in capital funding through their local County Child-care Committee. The...

Written Answers — Child Abuse: Child Abuse (8 Apr 2008)

Brendan Smith: I have been in touch with the Health Service Executive. I have asked it to expedite the provision of the information requested by the Deputy. As regards the provision of monthly information, the Deputy will be aware that under section 31 of the Health Act 2004, the Health Service Executive must prepare and submit to the Minister its National Service Plan (NSP) including amongst other...

Written Answers — Regeneration Programme: Regeneration Programme (8 Apr 2008)

Brendan Smith: My Department currently is examining the education elements of the Vision Statements of the Limerick Southside and Northside Regeneration Agencies, launched in January of this year, with a view to supporting the regeneration strategy set out in the Fitzgerald report to Cabinet. In this regard the Department's Mid-Western Regional Office is working very closely with the Agencies and with the...

Written Answers — Residency Permits: Residency Permits (9 Apr 2008)

Brendan Smith: The Immigration Division of my Department has informed me that no application for residency or permission to remain in the State has been received from the person referred to by the Deputy.

Seanad: Voluntary Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report and Final Stages (9 Apr 2008)

Brendan Smith: I wish to apologise for inconveniencing the House and thank all Members for their co-operation in deferring this discussion from 3.30 p.m. I was launching a child and adolescent centre in Finglas and was back in Leinster House at 3.30 p.m. so I was being cautious in notifying our Whip that I might be delayed. I am reporting back to Seanad Éireann on some minor amendments that were made in...

Seanad: Voluntary Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report and Final Stages (9 Apr 2008)

Brendan Smith: The amendments contained in this group cover minor technical issues, being amendments made on foot of consideration by the Office of the Attorney General of the initial text. Amendments Nos. 7 and 8 more accurately reference the companies and insurance Acts. Some of the amendments have been made to improve the clarity of the provisions. Amendment No. 19 puts it beyond doubt that only one...

Seanad: Voluntary Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report and Final Stages (9 Apr 2008)

Brendan Smith: What Senator Fitzgerald has said is correct. It is important that Members of this House are aware that the health insurance market is changing, as was witnessed very recently by the purchase of VIVAS by Hibernian. It is important that the VHI is empowered to compete in the market while also ensuring that it does so on an equal footing with its competitors. It is hoped that the Bill will...

Seanad: Voluntary Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report and Final Stages (9 Apr 2008)

Brendan Smith: The Bill, when published, provided for the removal of an exemption from section 2 of the health insurance Acts for cash plan type products that also include cover for outpatient and GP services. When the Bill was previously considered here, the Minister advised the House that the change proposed would limit regulation to the minimum necessary to protect the community rated indemnity market...