Results 15,121-15,140 of 21,514 for speaker:Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Health Service Executive (Financial Matters) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (6 May 2014)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: I have given careful consideration to this Bill. I indicated on Second Stage that I saw the question of whether we had two allocations - one to the Department and one to the HSE - as a technicality. This Bill seeks to create a single allocation and places the Minister in a pivotal role in relation to the subsequent reallocation across all the service needs. I wish to set out the backdrop...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Health Service Executive (Financial Matters) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (6 May 2014)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: I am. I always do, including the Minister's. Why should that Minister have the final say before giving the Minister for Health the green light to carry forward an underspend so as to have additional funding in the year to follow? I am more grievously upset at what section 10 represents than I fully appreciated when we addressed it on Second Stage. I have taken the time to go through it...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Health Service Executive (Financial Matters) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (6 May 2014)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: On a point of clarification, I have never opposed a Supplementary Estimate for the Health Vote.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Health Service Executive (Financial Matters) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (6 May 2014)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: I would never oppose one for all the right reasons.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Health Service Executive (Financial Matters) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (6 May 2014)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: I accept much of what the Minister had to say and I welcome the fact he stated very clearly we can go no further as it is beyond any serious contemplation that the health services could take further cuts. My concern is that section 10(b)(3)(a) provides that if the amount of net expenditure incurred by the executive in a financial year is greater than the amount determined by the Minister for...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Health Service Executive (Financial Matters) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (6 May 2014)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: I am sorry but I will have to seek a vote on that question. I cannot accept section 10, as I have already explained.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Health Service Executive (Financial Matters) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (6 May 2014)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: I will be satisfied with members present voting because they are the only ones who have participated in the debate.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Health Service Executive (Financial Matters) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (6 May 2014)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: We will have the opportunity to revisit some of what we have said here today on Report Stage. Whatever about the outcome of the engagement, some of what was said was very important and I have already indicated my welcome for some of what the Minister has said. If we are to ensure that the situation does not get worse, we need to be working at this together.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: EU Scrutiny Reports for 2013: Departments of Health and Children and Youth Affairs (8 May 2014)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: I did not hear the Chairman's opening remarks this morning at the recommencement of our meeting but I apologise to our guests for the delay in meeting them. I hope Mr. Breslin will convey my good wishes to Deputy Fitzgerald on her appointment as Minister for Justice and Equality. While that is a very exciting challenge for her, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs will greatly miss...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: EU Scrutiny Reports for 2013: Departments of Health and Children and Youth Affairs (8 May 2014)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: Of course.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Preschool Services (13 May 2014)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: 99. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if he will support the growing demand of preschool childcare facility providers for their facilities and services to be seen and accepted as educational in the first instance and formative for the lifetime achievement of their charges; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21148/14]

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Preschool Services (13 May 2014)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: I record my good wishes to the former Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, and I thank her for the stewardship of the Department over the past three years. I wish the current Minister, Deputy Charles Flanagan, well in his new responsibilities. I seek to know the understanding and acceptance of the new Minister for Children and Youth Affairs of the invaluable...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Preschool Services (13 May 2014)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: I welcome the Minister’s response. The preschool setting plays an incredibly important role in our children’s development at the most important time in their lives. It is not unfair to say we in Ireland were very slow to appreciate and realise the importance of preschool support. Parents and experts know that children thrive in an environment where the numbers are small, they...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Preschool Services (13 May 2014)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: I welcome the Minister’s response and the fact that he shares my view of the educational role of preschool facilities. I appreciate he is reading himself into his brief. Nevertheless, I appeal to him because this is a question of quality child care provision, one of the key components of which is resourcing when resources are under a great deal of strain. Will the Minister consider...

Other Questions: Child Detention Centres (13 May 2014)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: 104. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if he will provide an update on the Oberstown development, including from a construction, staffing and management perspective; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21038/14]

Other Questions: Child Detention Centres (13 May 2014)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: I seek an update from the Minister regarding the Oberstown development and the timeframe by which we will see the transfer of youth detainees at St. Patrick's Institution to the new facilities at Oberstown.

Other Questions: Child Detention Centres (13 May 2014)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: This has been an issue of concern for all of us in the House going back some considerable period of time. I addressed it with the Minister's predecessor on a number of occasions and with the Ombudsman for Children when she attended a meeting of the Joint Committee on Health and Children. There were also statements in the Seanad on this matter. There is universal support for the project...

Other Questions: Child Detention Centres (13 May 2014)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: At the outset, I welcome the speed of the Minister's intent with regard to a visit to the Oberstown works. I ask that he informs himself through inquiry as to the situation applying to the Irish Youth Justice Service, IYJS, and whether an injunction exists in that regard. Were the Minister to revert to me subsequently, I would welcome clarification on that matter. The Minister should...

Other Questions: Preschool Services (13 May 2014)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: 107. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs his plans to extend the free preschool year to a second year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21036/14]

Other Questions: Preschool Services (13 May 2014)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: I seek to establish if the new Minister for Children and Youth Affairs will prioritise the roll-out of a universal free second preschool year during the remainder of the Dáil term.