Results 221-240 of 20,818 for speaker:Norma Foley

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Early Childhood Care and Education (23 Sep 2025)

Norma Foley: As of 22 September 2025, 90% of eligible providers had signed up to the fourth year of Core Funding, almost 4,300 services. This represents an increase of over 5% since this time last year. Every year there are a number of services who sign up to Core Funding in the weeks following the commencement of the programme year. I am encouraged by the high engagement with the application process...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Childcare Services (23 Sep 2025)

Norma Foley: Core Funding has been designed with maximum participation of providers in mind as reflected in the year-on-year growth of investment in the Scheme (rising from €259 million in year 1 to over €390 million in year 4). This represents an increase of over 50% in Core Funding in three years. The 2025/2026 allocation represents an increase of over €60 million (over 18%) on...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Childcare Services (23 Sep 2025)

Norma Foley: Earlier this year, I announced the introduction of maximum fee caps for all Partner Services in Core Funding from September 2025. The introduction of universal maximum fee caps is in addition to the fee freeze, which will remain in place for all Partner Services with fees below these caps. This is an important step towards the reduction of parental fees to €200 per month over the...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Prison Service (23 Sep 2025)

Norma Foley: The safety and wellbeing of both staff and young people in Oberstown Children Detention Campus is of the utmost importance to me and to this Department. While I acknowledge the challenges faced by staff working in this demanding environment, I am confident there are several measures in place that ensure the safety of the young people detained and the staff working there. The following is a...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Disability Services (23 Sep 2025)

Norma Foley: As this question refers to service matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive (HSE) to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Disabilities Assessments (23 Sep 2025)

Norma Foley: As this question refers to service matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive (HSE) to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Health Services (23 Sep 2025)

Norma Foley: I propose to take Questions Nos. 37, 89, 522, 558, 559, 560, 562, 563 and 574 together. The Programme for Government – 'Securing Ireland’s Future’ - includes a commitment for advancing Neuro-Rehabilitation services nationally including the completion of the national rollout of Health Service Executive (HSE) Community Neuro-rehabilitation Teams. The HSE is leading on...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Disabilities Assessments (23 Sep 2025)

Norma Foley: As this question refers to service matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive (HSE) to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Childcare Services (23 Sep 2025)

Norma Foley: The Programme for Government commits to “progressively reduce the cost of childcare to €200 per month per child.” This commitment will be achieved over the lifetime of the Government. The Deputy will be aware that the maximum fee caps were extended to all Partner Services in Core Funding this month. The introduction of fee-caps is an important step towards the...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Disabilities Assessments (23 Sep 2025)

Norma Foley: As this question refers to service matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive (HSE) to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Early Childhood Care and Education (23 Sep 2025)

Norma Foley: The Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) was introduced in 2016 to ensure that children with additional needs or a disability could access and meaningfully participate in the Early Childhood Care and Education or ECCE programme. Since its introduction, AIM has had a major impact on the lives of children with disabilities and the overall quality of early learning and care. To date, over 35,000...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Child Poverty (23 Sep 2025)

Norma Foley: Child poverty requires a cross-governmental response and I am committed to supporting the broader Government action to combat child poverty. The Child Poverty and Well-being Office in the Department of the Taoiseach was established in 2023 to coordinate government actions that reduce child poverty and foster children’s well-being, focussed on improvements that have the potential to...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Childcare Services (23 Sep 2025)

Norma Foley: The Programme for Government commits to “progressively reduce the cost of childcare to €200 per month per child.” This commitment will be achieved over the lifetime of the Government. The Deputy will be aware that the maximum fee caps were extended to all Partner Services in Core Funding this month. The introduction of fee-caps is an important step towards the...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Ombudsman for Children (23 Sep 2025)

Norma Foley: The establishment of a Child Death Review mechanism, while very welcome, is not within the remit of my Department. As the the Ombudsman for Children’s recent Child Death Review report outlined, the majority of deaths take place in medical settings, which you would appreciate is outside of the scope of this Department. I welcomed report titled Child Death Review: The Case for a...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Disabilities Assessments (23 Sep 2025)

Norma Foley: This Government recognises that waiting times for Assessment of Need (AON) are too long and have a significant impact on delivering on the needs of children and their families. Both this Department and the HSE have been working intensively to progress measures to reduce waiting times. It is important to emphasise that, while children have a right to apply for an AON, they do not need one...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Childcare Services (23 Sep 2025)

Norma Foley: Improving access to quality and affordable Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare is a key priority of Government. Early learning and childcare capacity is increasing. Data from the Annual Early Years Sector Profile 2023/24 shows that the estimated number of enrolments increased by approximately 19% from the 2021/22 programme year. Core Funding application data shows that...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Childcare Services (23 Sep 2025)

Norma Foley: Investment in Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School-Age Childcare (SAC) has quadrupled in the last 10 years from €260 million in 2015 to €1.37 billion in 2025. The National Childcare Scheme (NCS) provides financial support to help families with their early learning and childcare costs, via a subsidy paid directly to the childcare provider. All children in Ireland...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Childcare Services (23 Sep 2025)

Norma Foley: The Programme for Government outlines the commitment to "undertake a broad consultation and publish a detailed Action Plan to build an affordable, high-quality, accessible early childhood education and care system". Officials in my Department are continuing to develop this Action Plan and are also developing plans for the broad consultation with stakeholders. The Action Plan will look at...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Early Childhood Care and Education (23 Sep 2025)

Norma Foley: Improving access to quality and affordable Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare is a key priority of Government Early learning and childcare capacity is increasing. Data from the Annual Early Years Sector Profile 2023/24 shows that the estimated number of enrolments increased by approximately 19% from the 2021/22 programme year. Core Funding application data shows that between...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Early Childhood Care and Education (23 Sep 2025)

Norma Foley: Funding provided by this Department for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare services is provided on the same basis to both Irish-medium and English-medium services, whether inside or outside Gaeltacht areas. The overall funding provided to all services in contract with the Department - including Irish-medium services - is provided through a number of funding schemes...