Results 18,961-18,980 of 21,128 for speaker:James Reilly

Other Questions: Child Protection (15 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: I reiterate what I said in response to the earlier question from Deputy McLellan, that all children who are known to be at immediate and urgent risk are seen immediately and have a social worker assigned to them by Tusla, the Child and Family Agency. Comments about the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, report for the Cork area may have given the impression that these most...

Other Questions: Child Protection Services (15 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: My Department works closely with Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, to ensure that all children identified as needing a social worker service receive one. Tusla figures indicate there were 27,710 open cases at the end of January 2015. These provisional figures show that 7,787 of these were waiting to be allocated a social worker. Around 30% of these were deemed to be high priority....

Other Questions: Child Protection Services (15 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: I could not agree more with the Deputy. The issues need to be dealt with before referral to social workers. That is the point of the Child and Family Agency and of all the non-governmental organisations, NGOs, the Department interacts with. On Monday we launched an excellent programme Tusla is introducing around far earlier intervention. We are moving away from crisis intervention and...

Other Questions: Child Protection Services (15 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: There has been quite a reduction in the number of administrators right across the HSE in what was the predecessor of the Child and Family Agency. It is a considerable reduction because that issue was exercising many people on that side of the House before this Government took office. The Deputy asked about numbers. Of the cases awaiting social workers, 234 were assessed as high...

Other Questions: Child and Family Agency Services (15 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: I thank the Deputy for his question. Children and young people’s services committees or CYPSCs - God knows, there are a huge amount of acronyms in my Department - are being put in place to develop and implement a local planning model for inter-agency working to improve outcomes for children and young people. The age remit of the committees has been extended to include 18 to 24 year...

Other Questions: Child and Family Agency Services (15 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: It would vary around the country but of the ones I have met there is very strong coherence, connectivity and interaction between the various committees. They have the same interests at heart. I was at the opening of an all-weather pitch in Balbriggan today where I could see all that coherence coming together, with Fingal County Council management, the councillors themselves, the local...

Other Questions: Foster Care (15 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: The report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse - the Ryan report - was published on 20 May, 2009 and was one of a range of measures which were put in place following the formal apology by the State to the victims of abuse. The Residential Institutions Redress Board was also established in order to make payments to persons who, as children, were abused while residents in industrial...

Other Questions: Foster Care (15 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: There have been a number of positive developments regarding foster care that have taken place in recent times. The primary legislation governing child care policy is the Child Care Act, 1991, and the Child and Family Agency Act, 2013. The report of the working group on foster care published in 2001 addresses meeting the needs of children in foster care, meeting the needs of children with...

Other Questions: Foster Care (15 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: The focus to date has been on ensuring there is no repeat of that and that the children in foster care today are safe from any such abuse.

Topical Issue Debate: School Completion Programme (15 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: I thank the Deputies for raising this issue. I can assure them that the Minister of State, Deputy Jimmy Deenihan, and Deputy Brendan Griffin do not let the opportunity slip by to remind me about the importance of the school completion programme. I am pleased that everyone agrees that the programme operates very well and has been very successful. All of the statistics support that...

Topical Issue Debate: School Completion Programme (15 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: I am pleased that the Deputies across the floor support this programme and understand its value. I do not doubt that the ESRI's report will vindicate that value, although I do not have it as yet. As a republic, what we want is equal opportunity for all of our children and to level the playing pitch for children who are born into socioeconomic disadvantage. I agree with Deputy O'Brien, in...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child Care Services Provision (15 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: My Department currently provides approximately €260 million annually to early years and school-age care and education services. This funding is directed towards three programmes, which aim to improve the accessibility, affordability and quality of early years and school-age care and education. These programmes – the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme, the...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: School Completion Programme (15 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: The School Completion Programme aims to retain young people in the formal education system to completion of senior cycle and to improve the school attendance, participation and retention of its target cohort. It is a targeted intervention aimed at school communities identified under the Department of Education and Skills DEIS Action Plan. Since 1st January 2014, the Child and Family...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child Poverty (15 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: On the 4th of December, 2014, Minister Kelly hosted a special summit on homelessness to reaffirm the Government's commitment to end 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 homelessness, and substantial progress has been made in implementing that...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child Care Services Provision (15 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: Additional provisions are made for children with special needs who access the free pre-school year under the Early Childhood Care and Education programme. These provisions include the option to avail of the programme on a pro-rata basis over a two year time period, and also the option to avail of an exemption to the upper age limit for entry to the programme. The majority of children...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child Protection (15 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) carried out an announced inspection of Child Protection and Welfare Services in Cork in October 2014. The investigation identified two areas of significant risk, which were immediately addressed by Tusla, the Child and Family Agency. The remaining actions addressing the inspection findings were published in an Action Plan with specific...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: National Youth Strategy (15 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: The National Youth Strategy will focus on the youth-related policy commitments outlined in Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures 2014 - 2020, the National Policy Framework for Children and Young People. It will be a universal strategy for all young people aged 10 to 24 years. It will have a particular focus on those who are most disadvantaged or at risk and who have the poorest outcomes and...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child Protection Services (15 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: The policy responsibility for homeless children, insofar as it extends to my Department, relates to children under 18 who are not in the care of their parents or guardians in the context of the Child Care Act 1991 and to young people who were formerly in the care of the State and presently in receipt of aftercare services. The accommodation needs of these young people will be identified as...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Early Child Care Education (15 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: The Early Childhood Care and Education programme provides one free pre-school year to all eligible children before commencing primary school. This programme represents an annual investment of more than €170 million in pre-school services. The introduction of a second pre-school year would require considerable additional funding, broadly in line with the cost of the current provision....

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child Abuse (15 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: There have been a number of investigations into cases of historical child abuse, including for example, inquiries into the handling of allegations in the dioceses of Ferns and Cloyne, and with particular regard to State institutions, the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (known as the “Ryan Report”). The Ryan Report was published in 2009 and detailed disturbing and...