Results 18,761-18,780 of 21,128 for speaker:James Reilly

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Early Child Care Education (24 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: The early childhood care and education programme is a free and universal programme to which all children, including those children with special needs, have access. The objective of the programme is to make early learning in a formal setting available to all eligible children before they commence primary school. The issue of access to the free preschool year for children with special needs...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Early Child Care Education (24 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: I have information that I am given to understand indicates that the HSE is not withdrawing any funding in this area. Maybe further funding is required, and that might be an issue. As we know, an extra €650 million has been made available to the Department of Health to disperse. We would not expect to see any further cuts in this area. The Deputy asked when we will have the full...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Early Child Care Education (24 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: I utterly reject the contention that we are not giving this the focus it deserves. This is the first Government to have a senior Cabinet Minister responsible for and focused on the needs of children. That is something which successive Governments did not do beforehand. As I pointed out already, we know some children go straight into junior infants rather than participating in the early...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Services for People with Disabilities (24 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: The ECCE programme is one of a number of child care support programmes implemented by my Department to assist parents to access quality child care services. The programme, which provides one free preschool year to qualifying children before they commence primary school, is a free and universal programme to which all children, including those children with special needs, have access. The...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Services for People with Disabilities (24 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: The interdepartmental group will be critical in assessing these issues. Children with special needs should not be taken out of that group but should be treated within that group with the same respect and degree of analysis and scrutiny as all other groups. As I said, many children with disabilities participate in the free preschool year without seeking the exemptions that I mentioned...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Services for People with Disabilities (24 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: I would not suggest that. Deputy Healy's concern, interest and bona fides in this area are clear and sincere. However, I am pointing out the dangers of unintended consequences. Taking this group out of the main group will not serve their purposes as well as leaving them in the mainstream group. The thrust of our educational approach for children with special needs is to support them in...

Other Questions: Early Child Care Education (24 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: The early childhood care and education, ECCE, programme provides one free preschool year to qualifying children before they commence primary school. The ECCE programme is a free and universal programme to which all children, including those children with special needs, have access. The issue of access to the free preschool year for children with special needs was taken into account when the...

Other Questions: Early Child Care Education (24 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: I am very concerned that this issue will be examined. The best context in which to look at it is the interdepartmental group. It is appropriate that the roles of the HSE and the Child and Family Agency in supporting families are considered when examining funding for special needs assistants for older school-going children. We are trying to support parents to come out of poverty. We want...

Other Questions: Child Detention Centres (24 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: The programme for Government commits us to end the practice of detaining children in adult prison facilities. Significant progress has been made in implementing this important objective. Before this Government took office, both 16 year old and 17 year old boys were detained in the adult prison system. The transfer of responsibility for 16 year old boys to the children detention schools was...

Other Questions: Child Detention Centres (24 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: A campaign is ongoing to recruit more than 60 new care staff for the operation of the expanded Oberstown campus, and 38 staff have been recruited to date. My Department is making progress on the necessary legal changes required to transfer responsibility for 17 year old boys from adult prison facilities by amending the Children Act 2001. It is intended that the Bill to give full effect to...

Other Questions: Child Detention Centres (24 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: The Deputy asked me if I had confidence in the management at Oberstown to ensure that we have standards in place that are safe. I have confidence in the management there. They have put in place a plan that will address the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, report. The actions and the timelines are agreed with HIQA. That is certainly our intention. However, there has to be a...

Other Questions: Child Detention Centres (24 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: I will cover the McElfatrick issue as well, but in regard to this Bill, we have had a huge number of complications in what seemed like a simple piece of legislation. When it is being examined by parliamentary counsel, questions come back in volumes with regard to policy issues, etc. We are dealing with them. We would like to see it expedited. We want to meet our commitment and we will. ...

Other Questions: Early Child Care Education (24 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: With the indulgence of the Chamber, I will answer this question, which has been raised frequently today, because it is a very important issue and a very important area. We are talking about the early childhood care and education programme, which provides one preschool year to qualifying children before they commence primary school. The ECCE programme is a free and universal programme to...

Other Questions: Early Child Care Education (24 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: I assure the Deputy that it will be taken very seriously. It is one of the serious issues for the interdepartmental group to examine. As I stated earlier, we have all the key actors involved in this group: the Department of Social Protection; the Department of Education and Skills; the Department of Health, which is leading it; the Department of Finance; and the Department of Public...

Other Questions: Early Child Care Education (24 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: As I have said on a number of occasions, there is no uniformity of support for special needs children across the country. This has been quantified and will be part of the work of the interdepartmental group. The Department of Education and Skills is working on this at the moment. Many children are in the ECCE programme but are not immediately identifiable as special-needs children from the...

Other Questions: Homelessness Strategy (24 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: As the Deputy will be aware, on 4 December 2014, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government hosted a special summit on homelessness to reaffirm the Government's commitment to ending involuntary long-term homelessness, including that of families with children, by the end of 2016. A number of actions arising from the summit were formalised into an action plan to address...

Other Questions: Homelessness Strategy (24 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: The Deputy points out one issue in the report. I am very concerned about the issue of child poverty. I note that the overall report gave the Government a "C" in respect of issues to do with child care and children. However, child poverty is a matter of serious concern, which the Government will tackle through various interactions between different Departments. Clearly, we are concerned...

Other Questions: Homelessness Strategy (24 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: I have made it clear that jobs are very important, but there are a number of programmes supporting families in the area of child care, such as the child care employment and training support scheme, the community employment child care schemes and after-school programmes. These programmes will help parents to get back to work and break the cycle of poverty. Equally, it is very clear that we...

Other Questions: Youth Services Provision (24 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: The national youth strategy will focus on the youth-related policy commitments outlined in Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures, the national policy framework for children and young people. It will be a universal strategy for all young people aged ten to 24. It will have a particular focus on those who are most disadvantaged or at risk and who have the poorest outcomes and are, therefore, in...

Leaders' Questions (24 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: This is a Second Stage speech.