Results 321-340 of 20,908 for speaker:Norma Foley

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...

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

Norma Foley: I can inform the Deputy that my Department allocates core funding for the Family Resource Centre Programme through Tusla, the Child and Family Agency. Tusla administers the Family Resource Centre Programme, which supports members throughout the country. Core funding principally covers the salaries of staff, along with some operational costs. Such funding supports the pivotal role Family...

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

Norma Foley: The Department is working in collaboration with other relevant Departments and Agencies to develop a national plan to further the development of Irish language provision in the Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School-Age Childcare (SAC) sector. The development of such a plan is a commitment in the 5-Year Action Plan for the Irish Language. The national plan is expected to support the...

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

Norma Foley: In 2025, €25m in voted expenditure was made available for the Building Blocks Extension Grant Scheme. The Building Blocks Extension Grant scheme allows for Core Funding Partner Services to extend their existing premises or, in the case of community services, to construct or purchase new premises. 50 projects were shortlisted to be funded and will deliver up to 1,500 additional new full...

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

Norma Foley: The National Review Panel (NRP) conducts reviews of child deaths and serious incidents, where the child is in care or is known to Tusla. I can inform the Deputy that the NRP is independent in the performance of its functions, making findings of fact and producing reports that are objective and independent of Tusla. The NRP produces reports that are factually based and identify points of...

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: 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 between...

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

Norma Foley: Ms. Patricia Carey was appointed to the role of Special Advocate for Survivors of Institutional Abuse in March 2024. Operating independently of the Minister and the Department, her primary role is to amplify the voices of survivors as a central, essential input to Government deliberations on matters which affect them and to promote the collective interests of survivors. Her remit encompasses...

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: Disability Services (23 Sep 2025)

Norma Foley: This Department funds several assistive technology (AT) projects to enhance the lives of people with disabilities in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF Global Report on Assistive Technology (GReAT). This report published in 2022 has estimated that 3.5bn people will need at least one form of...