Results 10,361-10,380 of 11,827 for speaker:Roderic O'Gorman

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals: Discussion (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach and welcome the opportunity to meet the Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth on the progression of the sustainable development goals. As the committee knows, in Ireland a whole-of-government approach is taken to the implementation of these goals. My Department has done a considerable amount of work towards their attainment,...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals: Discussion (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: -----for women and girls that will also respond to the recommendations of the recent Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality. In 2021, I announced that I would be conducting a review of the Equal Status Act 2000 and the Employment Equality Acts, 1998 to 2011. The review, which is ongoing, is examining the operation of the equality Acts from the perspective of the person taking a claim under...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals: Discussion (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I might start with that. In the run-up to the referendum, I announced an interdepartmental group meeting to bring all the relevant Departments together to see what barriers exist and how we can address them. My understanding is that has met twice so far. It will bring its report back to Cabinet for one of our July meetings. Prior to the referendum campaign, I commissioned legal advice...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals: Discussion (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the Deputy for her contribution. This is an issue she has championed over the past number of years. I remember when I started in this role four years ago, we would have said the challenges were that parents are paying too much, staff are not paid enough and providers are not making a significant income from their work. Those were the big three challenges and we have done a huge...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals: Discussion (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I will come back to the paperwork in a moment. In terms of more money, core funding is delivering very significantly from September of this year. Probably next week we will be announcing the allocations for core funding in year 3. I will not say we will get rid of the fee freeze, because it is so important. I am aware there are a couple of services whose fees were last set in the...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals: Discussion (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: There is much administration there. Earlier this year, I announced an overview of the administrative burden, and that is taking place. We are having an action plan to set out where there is duplication, where there is administration burden and where we can remove that. We have been able to do a few already, even in terms of this year’s contracts. There used to be different sets of...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals: Discussion (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: Before I was here, I was meeting with Childminding Ireland to talk to it about the childminding regulation, which some childminders have been concerned about.

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals: Discussion (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: We had a good, useful discussion. I meet with the entire sector in the Early Years Forum. That has representatives of the big chains, the mediums-size groups, the small-size groups, parents and educators. It is an effective location. I meet with it three or four times a year. I also regularly meet with many of the individual organisations, both formally and informally, when I am at...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals: Discussion (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: We are always trying to communicate and provide information about what we are doing. There absolutely continues to be challenges in early years. The Deputy will recall that just before the last general election when we were all elected, there was a massive march of childcare professionals, providers and parents all very angry about the three issues I outlined at the start. We have made...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals: Discussion (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: We hope to get this done before the end of the summer. A lot of work has been done on it, so we are hoping to get it published in July or August. Youth work is very much a focus for us. I have been able to significantly increase the budget, though when I met with national youth organisations yesterday they set a high bar for budget 2025. The Leas-Chathaoirleach is right in terms of its...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals: Discussion (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (26 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: There was loads of debate.

Child Care (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (26 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the Deputies for their contributions. I am not able to accept Deputy Sherlock's amendment but I hope that what I am about to say will explain why. The impact of what he is proposing and where he has located the amendment may be wider than he intends. Perhaps I can also provide some words of comfort. As we recall from last week, the purpose of this Bill is twofold. One element is...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals: Discussion (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: This was something the sector asked me to prioritise because it saw it could reach a set of young people the social welfare office was far away from and with which there was no connection. On gender pay gap information, the goal is to have the database as a website where people can put in the name of a company and look at its database. I am told that is a relatively complicated website....

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Maternity Leave (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Maternity Protection Act 1994 and the Maternity Protection (Amendment) Act 2004 provide a pregnant employee with six months of paid maternity leave and an additional 16 weeks of unpaid leave. All forms of family leave are kept under review to ensure that they are effective in supporting families and children.At the end of last year I announced plans to introduce legislation to allow women...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Residential Institutions (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: In March 2022, Government approved high-level proposals for a National Centre for Research and Remembrance, to be located on the site of the former Magdalen Laundry on Sean McDermott Street in Dublin 1.This Centre will stand as a site of conscience to honour equally all those who spent time in Industrial Schools, Magdalen Laundries, Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions, Reformatories,...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: International Protection (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: There are currently over 31,000 people accommodated in the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) system as a whole (of whom over 7,833 are children) compared with approximately 8,700 people at the end of February 2022. Weekly and Monthly statistics are available publicly on the gov.ie at the links below: . Please see, in tabular format, the number of persons with...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Mother and Baby Homes (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: While I try to be helpful at all times in the parliamentary process, the Deputy will be aware that I cannot be involved in individual cases and cannot comment on same. That said, I will try to be helpful in general terms. The Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme is designed to provide payments and other benefits to people who spent time in any Mother and Baby or County Home...