Results 1,801-1,820 of 11,744 for speaker:Roderic O'Gorman

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Programmes (31 Mar 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: While DECDIY does not publish one overarching analysis of population change, my Department uses population data to plan policy and services. The Research and Evaluation Unit within DCEDIY has the benefit of a seconded statistician from the Central Statistics Office, and regularly draws on population data to support policy relevant analysis across the broad remit of the Department. In...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (31 Mar 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme provides for children to participate in a universal preschool programme for 15 hours per week over 38 weeks of the year for the two years prior to beginning primary school. It is a very successful programme with an estimated participation of 95% of children in the eligible age range. Some early learning and childcare services...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Expenditure (31 Mar 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: My Department has incurred total costs of €24,547.78 to date in the development of the Childminding Action Plan. Of this total sum, €11,029.39 was incurred between 2016 and 2018 in the development of the report of the Working Group on Reforms and Supports for the Childminding Sector (Pathway to a Quality Support and Assurance System for Childminding: Volume 1 and Volume 2),which...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (31 Mar 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Learner Fund is a funding stream offered by my Department to practitioners working in early learning and care and school-age childcare seeking to upskill and gain higher qualifications. It has operated for several years by providing either pre-award funding or a post-award bursary. The initiative was initially rolled out from 2014 to support the introduction of the minimum National...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Disability Support Services (31 Mar 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Comprehensive Employment Strategy for People with Disabilities (CES) 2015 - 2024 is the primary disability employment policy framework in Ireland. It is a cross-government approach, bringing together actions by Government Departments and Agencies to address the barriers and challenges to employment of people with disabilities. The CES’s strategic priorities are to build skills,...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Domestic Violence Services (31 Mar 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Coordination of Policy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence (DSGBV) is led by the Department of Justice. Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, has statutory responsibility for the care and protection of victims of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence (DSGBV). The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women andDomestic Violence (known...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Disability Services Provision (31 Mar 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee T.D., is responsible for tackling violence experienced by people, including those with disabilites, both inside and outside the home. My Department officials are in contact with their Department of Justice counterparts on an ongoing basis to provide input into Department of Justice measures in this area

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Disability Support Services (31 Mar 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: Participation in of people with disabilities and their representative organisations is a requirement under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). My Department has recently funded and established a Disability Participation and Consultation Network to act as a mechanism for ensuring people with disabilities and their representative organisations are...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Disability Support Services (31 Mar 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities attaches priority to consulting people with disabilities and to encouraging their participation in the development of policy and legislation. The Disability Participation and Consultation Network was established in 2020 as a mechanism to ensure that people with a disability and their representative organisations will be involved in the...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Domestic Violence Services (31 Mar 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee T.D., is responsible for the Second National Strategy on Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence. It is designed to address the needs of a diversity of women and men, including women with disabilities.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Child Protection (31 Mar 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: I propose to take Questions Nos. 713, 714 and 717 together. I thank the Deputy for her questions and I am pleased to report progress on the development of the national Barnahus service for children who have experienced sexual abuse and their families. The Interdepartmental Group (IDG) leading this initiative comprises representation from my Department, the Departments of Health and...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Disability Support Services (31 Mar 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Comprehensive Employment Strategy for People with Disabilities (CES) 2015 - 2024 is the primary disability employment policy framework in Ireland. It is a cross-government approach, bringing together actions by Government Departments and Agencies to address the barriers and challenges to employment of people with disabilities. The CES’s strategic priorities are to build skills,...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Child Safety (31 Mar 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: Where a child has for one reason or another entered the care of Tusla a core feature of the care plan created for the child is the planned reunification with the child's parent/s. This only occurs where it is appropriate and safe to do so. In establishing this a parental capacity assessment is conducted. Parenting capacity is the ability to parent in a capable manner long term. An...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Parental Leave (31 Mar 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Parent’s Leave and Benefit Act 2019 introduced two weeks of paid parent's leave for each parent to be taken in the first year after the birth or adoptive placement of a child. The Family Leave and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2021 provides an additional three weeks of paid parent's leave to each parent, and to extend the period in which the leave can be taken to the first two...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: International Protection (31 Mar 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: I propose to take Questions Nos. 719 to 723, inclusive, and 725 together. The role of the City and County Management Association (CCMA) will be to support my Department to develop a national allocation key which will set out the number of applicants for international protection who will be accommodated in urban areas in each county. My Department will work with the CCMA to develop...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: International Protection (31 Mar 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The National Standards meet the requirements of the EU (recast) Reception Conditions Directive (Directive 2013/33/EU) which we voluntarily opted into in June 2018. My Department is engaged in consultations with the Department of Health and HIQA aimed at establishing an independent monitoring mechanism for standards in International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) accommodation...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (31 Mar 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Programme is a universal free two-year pre-school programme available to all children within the eligible age range. The minimum eligibility age for the ECCE programme was revised in September 2018 when it was reduced from 3 years to 2 years and 8 months. The revised minimum of 2 years and 8 months was chosen based on national experience and...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: National Childcare Scheme (31 Mar 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The National Childcare Scheme (NCS) was introduced in November 2019. Since then, over 50,200 children have benefitted from NCS subsidies. ELC/SAC providers are private businesses and as such it is matter for those businesses to decide whether they enter into any contractual arrangement including for the provision of the NCS. Services contract on an annual basis to participate in the Scheme....

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Parental Leave (31 Mar 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: Policy on surrogacy rests with the Minister for Health while policy on parentage rests with the Minister for Justice. Legislation on family leaves must be developed in the context of the legal situation concerning parentage, including in relation to surrogacy. Any changes in the legal situation with regard to parentage and surrogacy are matters for the Minister for Justice and Minister for...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (31 Mar 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The ongoing management of the organisation referred to by the Deputy is a matter for their Board, including the challenges being presented due to the recent Covid-19 restrictions. My Department provides substantial funding to this organisation, which plays an important role in providing young people with opportunities for developmental experiences and informal learning. All of the youth...