Results 2,461-2,480 of 21,128 for speaker:James Reilly

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (3 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: In regard to Deputy Troy's question on the ESRI report, I am not in a position to tell him precisely when that will be. When the ESRI is finished its work - I do not have an indication when that will be - we will take a number of weeks to examine the report. It would be unwise to do otherwise. I fully accept the Deputy's point that those involved in the school completion programme will be...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (3 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: I will reply to Deputy Troy's question first. There is money to staff these new units. We will introduce legislation very shortly to allow the three units to be run as one. I will give him an idea of the situation. The increase in the capacity of child detention schools also requires an associated increase in staffing levels. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has sanctioned...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (3 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: Yes, I do.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (3 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: This year.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (3 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: To respond to the first concern expressed by Deputies, the small reduction in the funding available reflects the smaller number of children who are using the service. This is the result of a small decline in the population. On a more general point, Pobal estimates that 24,000 people are employed in the child care sector. It is important to remember that these services are provided by...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (3 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: I am awaiting a paper on how that €75 million might be disbursed. Therefore, I am unable to provide the Deputy with any further information at this time. The review to which the Deputy alluded is not complete but that work will inform the interdepartmental group. With reference to the new mentoring better start and training support scheme and the Learner fund, €4 million has...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (3 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: I confirm that the community child care subvention programme is included, as well as the CCS and CETS programmes. I have dealt with the mentoring services and the Better Start programme, etc. I will be before the committee in two and a half weeks.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (3 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: As the Deputy has pointed out, the scheme was piloted from April 2013 but the take-up was extremely low. As a result, the number of places under the scheme was reduced to 500 in 2014, from the original figure of 6,000. The funding allocation in 2014 was €2.205 million and this has been reduced to €1.323 million because of the decrease in the number of places from 500 to 300....

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (3 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: Yes.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (3 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: To be technically correct, we handed that money back to the Exchequer because the national lottery does not directly give us money; it gives money to the Exchequer which in turn hands it to us. We hand it back to the Exchequer when we do not take it. We got a reasonably good deal, in so far as for that €900,000 plus we got €26 million extra for the agency.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (3 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: I am sorry to interrupt, but this is once-off funding allocated on the basis of a grant for a single year on foot of an application for funds. No person or organisation that received funding under the scheme can ever expect to receive it again the following year. It is strictly a capital fund and, therefore, not revenue. There is no entitlement to ongoing funding.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (3 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: I concur completely.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (3 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: I echo the Deputy's comments, but I would go further by saying we could not deliver as a Government in the way we do without the phenomenal volunteers in this sector. Again, I thank them for their work. On Deputy Robert Troy's point, I can confirm that the education and training boards, formerly the VECs, do disburse the funds. On the question of when they will know their budgets, they...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (3 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: The Deputy is correct that there are 13 programmes and that they are co-funded by the Department and Atlantic Philanthropies. Much has been learned in this regard. The total amount of committed funding available in the period 2013 to 2016, inclusive, will be €29.7 million. As I stated, there are 13 sites involved in the area-based childhood programme and ten are now operationalising...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (3 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: I am happy to say there will be no impact as a consequence of moving this money from this head back to Tusla front-line services. The objective of Ireland's early years strategy is to create an innovative and dynamic blueprint for the future development of Ireland's early years sector and a coherent approach to seeking to improve the lives of children from birth to six years. The strategy...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (3 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: It will be the other way around. The early years strategy will feed into the interdepartmental group.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (3 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: This is the children and young people's policy framework. Tusla is involved in it as well, in terms of helping the Department inform our policy decisions. There is no net loss in service arising out of this.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (3 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: Yes.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (3 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: I am glad the Deputy has raised this because this group is looking at more than just affordability and accessibility. It is looking at future investment in child care and the early years are but one section of child care years. We have zero to six, six to 12 and 12 to 18. People often forget about the 12 to 18 year olds and the latchkey kids, as they are called. Many parents are very...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (Revised) (3 Feb 2015)

James Reilly: There is a very simple straightforward explanation. The additional funds are intended to support the authority in meeting its increasing legal costs, plain and simple. There is no increase in staffing levels or anything of that nature. Much good work has been done by the authority over the past year in terms of Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam with regard to foreign adoptions. I am...