Results 9,961-9,980 of 11,819 for speaker:Roderic O'Gorman

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Childcare Services (30 Apr 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the Deputies very much. I have a lot to address in one minute. Deputies Ó Cathasaigh and Gould raised the issue of the Before 5 centre and indeed the Tánaiste has raised it with me as well. As I explained to the Deputies, right now our capital funding schemes are for expansions. The situation with the Before 5 centre is where we have an existing service that needs...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Childcare Services (30 Apr 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Cabinet committee on children, education and disability met two weeks ago. I presented on capacity, and this is one of the issues I flagged. There are guidelines for the use of school buildings, and we would certainly encourage as robust language as possible there. There are two elements here. There are after-school services and there are services that may run at the same time as...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Early Childhood Care and Education (30 Apr 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: In budget 2024, I secured €4.5 million to commence the initial roll-out of equal start from September of this year. That allocation is equivalent to €13.5 million in a full year, and I will be very pleased to be able to fully announce equal start in May of this year. Equal start is a funding model and set of universal and targeted measures to support access to, and...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Early Childhood Care and Education (30 Apr 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: There will be a range of universal and targeted supports, just like there are for AIM. There will be universal supports as regards better training for everybody in settings in terms of social inclusion and how to act on that within the particular setting. Better information will be provided to all parents so they understand what the supports available to them are. Not all parents know...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Early Childhood Care and Education (30 Apr 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: One statistic that always strikes me is that Traveller children are 10% less likely to take up the free two-year ECCE scheme than children from the settled community. Those kids on day one of junior infants are immediately at an educational disadvantage and they are trying to catch up from day one. We are targeting those early years, but that also includes school-age childcare. It is to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Parental Leave (30 Apr 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I propose to take Questions Nos. 90 and 114 together. There have been significant developments in the entitlements to different forms of family leave for working families in recent years. The Government committed in the programme for Government 2020 to supporting parents, including by extending paid leave to allow them to spend more time with their children during their earliest years....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Parental Leave (30 Apr 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: As the Deputy says, the Leave Our Leave campaign from the Irish Cancer Society is concerned with where a woman experiences cancer or a serious illness during her maternity leave and loses the leave while she is recovering. That is something I want to legislate for and I am looking to bring forward proposals on that. The point on the take-up of paternity leave and parents' leave is...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Parental Leave (30 Apr 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: One of the key reasons we made parents' leave non-transferable between the two parents was because there is that societal pressure where, if you can transfer it, in a lot of situations dad's time would have gone to mam and that would have been the end of the conversation. We felt it was important to encourage dads in every way possible to spend that very valuable and potentially now 11...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Childcare Services (30 Apr 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I touched on the matter already in answering Deputy Stanton's question. My Department is progressing a range of actions to ensure the supply of early learning and childcare provision meets demand. Work in this area is being led by a new supply management unit I established earlier this year in my Department. A key part of the supply management unit’s remit is to develop a...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Childcare Services (30 Apr 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: When I started in this role, costs for parents, lack of pay for staff and sustainability for providers were the big challenges. We have managed to do a significant amount in those three areas. Now capacity is the big challenge and I recognise that. We have a plan. A dedicated unit in my Department is looking at the national situation and putting in place the various measures to support...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Childcare Services (30 Apr 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: First, to Deputy Smith, there is a real sense of urgency on the issue of capacity. It is now the big challenge. The big challenge has moved from affordability because we and I, as Minister, acted over a number of budgets to deal with that issue and we have made significant progress. We have a plan. We have capital funding and engagement with other Departments on removing the mechanisms....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Childcare Services (30 Apr 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the Deputy. Reform of the early learning and childcare sector is included in the programme for Government, bringing together the best of community and private provision and the development of a new funding model to ensure an affordable, accessible, sustainable and high-quality sector. 9 o’clock To address pressures on parents, providers and professionals, I have always...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Childcare Services (30 Apr 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Deputy is incorrect in saying so many childcare providers are leaving the system. We saw an increase in the overall provision of childcare providers last year and we saw the lowest number of them leaving the system than in the previous five years. Second, the number of children who benefit from the NCS has doubled during my term of office. That does not suggest that parents are unhappy...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Childcare Services (30 Apr 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I absolutely agree we are not spending enough on early years but there is a reason for that. That is because the State only started to invest in childcare in 2008-2009 when the early childhood care and education, ECCE, scheme was first set up. Prior to that, the State stepped away entirely from the early years sector. When the Deputy compares us with Iceland and Sweden, she is comparing us...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Childcare Services (30 Apr 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: To conclude, some of that may well be considered an element of public provision as well.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Health Services (30 Apr 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the whole-of-government response has been co-ordinated by a Cabinet committee chaired by the Taoiseach. Due to the impact of the dramatic increase in applicants, matters relating to international protection are also addressed at that Cabinet committee. My engagement with the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, and all other Ministers with...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Health Services (30 Apr 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the Deputy. She has raised the issue of the need for additional support for Ballaghaderreen. We are dealing with a small but important issue in terms of access to a leisure facility service. I communicated with the Deputy on that earlier today. Where there is high pressure on health services, we look to see whether measures can be put in place that will divert some of the...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (30 Apr 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: Approximately €370 million has been allocated to the National Childcare Scheme this year to reduce out of pocket costs to families using registered early learning and childcare. This Scheme is designed to be flexible, recognising that early learning and childcare needs are different for each family. The Scheme is also designed on a “money follows the child” basis. As...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Child Protection (30 Apr 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I acknowledge the current level of social work vacancies in Tusla and the challenges in recruiting sufficient numbers of social workers into Tusla. The critical importance of children in care and children in need of child welfare and protection services being allocated a social worker is paramount, and my Department is working closely with Tusla on the recruitment and retention of social...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (30 Apr 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: According to recent data from Pobal, 28 services have withdrawn from Core Funding this year. Of these services, 15 have permanently closed and 13 continue to operate. I am aware also that three other services have notified Pobal of their intention to withdraw from the Scheme in the coming weeks. Providers that withdraw from Core Funding remain eligible, in this programme year, to continue...