Results 1,541-1,560 of 11,729 for speaker:Roderic O'Gorman

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Family Resource Centres (17 Feb 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, is responsible for the administration of the Family Resource Centre (FRC) Programme. I have requested that Tusla respond directly to the Deputy with regard to the proposed application process raised by the Deputy. I am pleased to have secured significant additional funding for Tusla this year which, I believe, will help the Agency more fully achieve its...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Adoption Services (17 Feb 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: As the subject matter of the Deputy's question relates to an operational matter for Tusla, I have referred the matter to them for a direct reply.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Adoption Services (17 Feb 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: As the subject matter of the Deputy's question relates to an operational matter for Tusla, I have referred the matter to them for a direct reply.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Adoption Services (17 Feb 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: As the subject matter of the Deputy's question relates to an operational matter for Tusla, I have referred the matter to them for a direct reply.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Children in Care (17 Feb 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: I recognise the important work carried out by advocacy services, such as EPIC, who work with children and young adults who are currently in care or who have experience of being in care. EPIC receives Government funding so that it can fulfil this important role. The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is currently reviewing the Child Care Act 1991. The Child...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Care Services (17 Feb 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: I have no plans at present to raise the age for which aftercare supports are made available to 26. Aftercare services are support services build on and support the work already undertaken by many including foster carers, social workers and residential workers in preparing young people for adulthood. Everyone has a role to play in preparing young people to reach their developmental...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Reviews (17 Feb 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: Deputy, thank you for your question. As you highlighted, action 65 of the Ryan Report Implementation Plan states that ‘the HSE will, with their consent, conduct a longitudinal study to follow young people who leave care for 10 years, to map their transition to adulthood’. Following on from a scoping study done by Dr Carmel Devaney in 2013, a feasibility study on conducting...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Immigration Support Services (17 Feb 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Deputy is referring to an operational matter for Tusla, the Child and Family Agency. I have therefore referred the matter to Tusla, and asked that a direct response be provided to the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (17 Feb 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: Exemptions for the age requirements for the ECCE programme provided by my Department are considered with regard to three guiding principles: - the child will not reach 6 years of age before beginning primary education as per the Educational Welfare Act, 2000, - a specialist has recommended the additional time in ECCE; and - the child has not already availed of the full two years of ECCE....

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Consultancy Contracts (17 Feb 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: My Department has not awarded any contracts for public relations advice and consultancy over €10,000 since January 2021. The Adoption Authority of Ireland, the National Disability Authority and Oberstown Children Detention Campus have confirmed likewise. I have referred the question to Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, the Ombudsman for Children's Office and the Irish Human...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Ministerial Communications (17 Feb 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Minister has not made contact, nor has had contact, from the United States administration.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Adoption Services (17 Feb 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: Section 6 of the Adoptive Leave Act 1995 provides for an entitlement to 24 weeks of paid adoptive leave for an employed adopting mother or a sole male adopter, and an additional 16 weeks of unpaid leave. Under the current legislation, adoptive leave is not available to male same-sex couples who are adopting jointly. Addressing the access to adoptive leave and benefit by male same-sex...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (17 Feb 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The public health response to the current pandemic is set by the Department of Health, therefore the question is more appropriate for my colleague the Minister for Health. However I appreciate the widespread use of non-transparent face masks have presented additional difficulties for the deaf and hard of hearing community, and other communities, in being able to interact with others in their...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Mother and Baby Homes Inquiries (18 Feb 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. I understand the anger of survivors regarding the deletion of tapes. For a long time, they have felt that their voices have not been heard and this action is compounding that anger and frustration. I am aware of recent calls for the timeframe of the commission to be extended to enable it to deal with concerns relating to the audio...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Mother and Baby Homes Inquiries (18 Feb 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: I am acutely aware of the very human stories and the real upset this has caused to survivors. I have engaged and continue to engage with survivors. My absolute priority is to see if there is a technical solution to seek to retrieve that information and those recordings. That is what we are looking at currently. We will continue to engage intensively with the commission on that point, to...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Funding (18 Feb 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The National Integration Fund (NIF) is a key element of the Migrant Integration Strategy and was developed to help facilitate the effective integration of migrants, or persons of migrant origin, into communities all over Ireland on an equal basis with those of Irish heritage. Its primary objective is to ensure that barriers to full participation in Irish society are identified and addressed...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Schemes (18 Feb 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: Every year since 2013 the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has provided Local Authorities with the opportunity to apply for funding to support new and existing play and recreation facilities for children and young people the Capital Grant Scheme for Play and Recreation. One of the consistent criteria under this scheme is that the playground must be...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Adoption Data (18 Feb 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: I understand that Here2Help closed its operations on 30 June 2020 and proposes to transfer its adoption related files to the Adoption Authority of Ireland. The Authority and Here2Help are currently in the process of finalising the suite of files to be transferred. Once this transfer of files happens, the Authority will need to integrate relevant records and consider how best it can...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Child and Family Agency (18 Feb 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: Following the receipt of representations on this issue, I asked Tusla for an update on services provided by the organisation named by the Deputy. Tusla has advised me that there is ongoing engagement between Tusla and the organisation named by the Deputy about service and funding arrangements for 2021. All organisations in the sector have also been invited to submit proposals to address...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Joint Labour Committees (18 Feb 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: I can inform the Deputy that contact details for the various grant funding schemes provided by my Department and the National Disability Authority are set out in the below table. The question has also been referred to Tusla and the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission for those bodies' direct reply to the Deputy. My Department's other agencies do not operate grand funding schemes.