Results 2,101-2,120 of 21,128 for speaker:James Reilly

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Departmental Staff Data (28 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: My officials have requested the information from the Child and Family Agency and I will forward the reply to the Deputy once I have been furnished with it.

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: National Educational Welfare Board Staff (28 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: The detailed information in relation to school attendance matters requested by the Deputy has been compiled by the Child and Family Agency and will be forwarded to the Deputy in the next week.

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child Care Qualifications (28 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: €3m has been provided over 2 years, 2014 and 2015, to finance a training support scheme - the Learner Fund - to assist staff already working in the childcare sector to meet the new childcare qualification requirements which are being introduced under the revised Preschool Regulations. The Learner Fund is being implemented in conjunction with Pobal and the local City/County Childcare...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Departmental Agencies Staff Data (28 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: As these are service matters, I have asked the Child and Family Agency to respond directly to the Deputy with the most up-to-date information.

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Inter-Country Adoptions (28 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: It would not be appropriate to provide specific information about individual cases. However, I raised the matter with the Adoption Authority of Ireland and I was advised by the Authority that all children adopted into Ireland did so under the conditions outlined in the Hague convention, the Adoption Act 2010 and any agreements entered into by each sending and receiving states. The...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Youth Services Funding (28 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: My Department administers a range of funding schemes and programmes to support the provision of youth services to young people throughout the country including those from disadvantaged communities. Some 30 national and major regional youth services receive funding under the Youth Services Grants Scheme. Targeted supports for disadvantaged, marginalised and at risk young people are provided...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Legislative Measures (23 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: The Adoption Act 2010 provides the legal basis for the adoption of children. This Act defines a child as 'any person who is under the age of 18 years'. I have no plans at present to amend the legislation to provide for the adoption of adults.

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Preschool Services (23 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: Children qualify for the free preschool provision when they are within the qualifying age range, which is between three years and three months to four years and seven months in the September of the relevant year. Therefore, children born between 2 February 2011 and 30 June 2012 qualify for the free preschool year in the school year commencing in September 2015. The child in question, who...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child Custody and Access (23 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: I want to thank the Deputy for brining this to my attention. The Deputy will appreciate that I am not in a position to comment, nor would it be appropriate for me to do so, on the specific matters raised. My Department has, however, referred this to Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, for attention and asked that they liaise directly with the person concerned.

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child Care Services Provision (22 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: Childcare services are provided by private commercial or community childcare providers and decisions in relation to the ongoing provision of services are a matter for the owners or the boards of management of these services. I am aware that the Cork County Childcare Committee had been working with Dunmanway Community Playschool in an effort to resolve a number of internal issues relating...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Youth Services Funding (22 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: My Department administers a range of funding schemes and programmes to support the provision of youth services to young people throughout the country including those from disadvantaged communities. The funding schemes support national and local youth work provision to some 380,000 young people and involve approximately 1,400 youth work staff in 477 projects and 40,000 volunteers working in...

Topical Issue Debate: School Completion Programme (21 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: I thank the Deputy for her question. It is clear to me, given the number of times this specific issue has arisen in the Topical Issue Debate, that it is a matter of great concern to many Deputies and that its value is very clear to them. I believe in the programme. It has tremendous value and goes a long way towards levelling the playing pitch to ensure children at risk of finishing school...

Topical Issue Debate: School Completion Programme (21 Apr 2015)

James Reilly: I thank the Deputy for her question. 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 through the Department of Education and Skills DEIS action plan. It involves...

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...

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...

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.

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...