Results 3,821-3,840 of 11,700 for speaker:Roderic O'Gorman

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (31 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: My Department has, since 2016, funded the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) to ensure that children with disabilities can access the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme. Its goal is to empower pre-school providers to deliver an inclusive pre-school experience, ensuring that every eligible child can meaningfully participate in the ECCE programme and reap the benefits of...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (31 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: In line with emerging best practice to support the integration and independence of children with a disability, the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) does not fund Special Needs Assistants (SNAs). Rather, Level 7 of AIM provides financial support to the pre-school provider, which is used either to reduce the adult-to-child ratio in the pre-school room or to buy in additional assistance to the...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (31 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: School age childcare (SAC) services are required to operate within regulatory minimum adult-to-child ratios as set out in the Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) (Registration of School Age Services) Regulations 2018. The ratio is the minimum number of adults required to supervise, care for and work directly with the children in the service. The introduction of SAC Regulations in...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (31 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: The availability of high-quality early learning and childcare that is affordable and accessible is a key Government priority and my Department relies on a number of data sources to monitor supply and demand. The annual data captured by Pobal on behalf of my Department - through the Early Years Sector Profile Survey - is one important data source that allows us to monitor supply and...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (31 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme is a free universal two-year pre-school programme available to all children within the eligible age range. It provides children with their first formal experience of early learning prior to commencing primary school. The programme is provided for three hours per day, five days per week over 38 weeks per year and the programme year runs...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (31 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: The availability of high-quality early learning and childcare is a key Government priority. The Department monitors early learning and childcare capacity on an ongoing basis, with a particular focus on responding to the unmet early learning and childcare needs of families. The annual data captured by Pobal on behalf of my Department - through the Early Years Sector Profile Survey - is one...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (31 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: I propose to take Questions Nos. 148 and 152 together. In instances where a service has concerns about their sustainability, the first step in obtaining support is for the service to reach out to their local City and County Childcare Committee (CCC). Once a services engages with their local CCC they will be able to avail of supports through the case management process. My Department...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (31 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme is a free universal two-year pre-school programme available to all children within the eligible age range. It provides children with their first formal experience of early learning prior to commencing primary school. The programme is provided for three hours per day, five days per week over 38 weeks per year and the programme year runs...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (31 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme is a free universal two-year pre-school programme available to all children within the eligible age range. It provides children with their first formal experience of early learning prior to commencing primary school. The programme is provided for three hours per day, five days per week over 38 weeks per year and the programme year runs...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (31 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: The availability of high-quality early learning and childcare is a key Government priority. The Department monitors early learning and childcare capacity on an ongoing basis, with a particular focus on responding to the unmet early learning and childcare needs of families. The annual data captured by Pobal on behalf of my Department - through the Early Years Sector Profile Survey - is...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (31 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: There are currently more than 4,200 Partner Services participating in Core Funding – representing 95% of all eligible services. These services must operate in line with the Core Funding Partner Service Funding Agreement. Regarding fees, Partner Services must uphold their contractual obligations regarding Fee Management as laid out in this Agreement. In its first year, Partner Services...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (31 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: I acknowledge that many early learning and care (ELC) and school-age childcare (SAC) services report staffing difficulties in relation to recruitment and retention. In general, staffing pressures in the sector are caused not by insufficient supply of qualified personnel, but by high levels of staff turnover. However, providers of ELC and SAC are private businesses. As the State does not...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Child Protection (31 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: I and the Government welcomed the publication of the independent review in relation to the handling of past complaints in St John Ambulance Ireland (SJAI). I thank Dr Geoffrey Shannon for his work in bringing to light his findings, and acknowledge the dedication and extraordinary courage that victim-survivors have shown through their central role in ensuring the review was undertaken....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Cost of Living Issues (30 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: As I said, this is an all-of-government approach. I focused in my reply on the things I am doing within my Department. I make no apologies for having a long-term strategy as to how to tackle these issues. The work we are doing now in respect of the NCS, core funding, the expansion of AIM - all those really good programmes - came about after a little long-term thought. I am very proud that...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Cost of Living Issues (30 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: The fact that the Government has now created a unit dedicated to tackling child poverty for the first time ever in the history of the State is very clear evidence of the fact that the Government is committed to addressing the needs of these children and families and doing so in a way that is not once-off but systemic and looks to tackle the causes of child poverty at its roots, be they issues...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: International Protection (30 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: As the Deputy will be aware, since the start of last year the State has responded to the largest humanitarian crisis it has ever faced. In spite of the unprecedented pressures for accommodation, more than 100,000 people arriving in Ireland in that time have found shelter and safety here. Approximately 85,000 of those have been provided with accommodation through my Department and, of those,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: International Protection (30 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: I believe that the point about Baggot Street hospital has been addressed on many occasions. Baggot Street Hospital is not fit for human habitation right now. A very major and a very long-term piece of work has to be done in order to make it fit for habitation. That may well happen - I would love to see it happen - but it will not deliver accommodation in the short term. My focus has had...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Youth Services (30 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: With respect, the budget has not stayed stagnant for many years. When I started it was €61 million and I have raised it to €73 million, which is an 18% increase across that period. That said, we always want to do more and the youth sector is so important in terms of what it provides in the form of both targeted and universal services. As we know, the community and voluntary...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Youth Services (30 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: I met members of the group in question with Deputy Murnane O'Connor and they gave an extremely impressive presentation. As the Deputy knows, I provide €128,000 to the group in terms of current spending through Tusla. We will continue to engage with that particular organisation. In response to Deputy Brady, I absolutely agree that we need to continue to grow the youth budget...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Cost of Living Issues (30 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: I propose to take Questions Nos. 42 and 47 together. I have seen the report referred to by Deputy Smith which highlights the difficulties currently being faced by children and families. There must be a cross-government response to this. My Department has recognised child poverty as a significant issue to be given a focus in the next national policy framework for children and young...