Results 501-520 of 19,412 for speaker:Norma Foley

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (19 Feb 2025)

Norma Foley: My Department provides a wide range of funding schemes to support the delivery of early learning and childcare and school age care services. Core Funding is a grant to providers designed to support quality, sustainability, and enhanced public management, with associated conditions in relation to fee control and cost transparency, incorporating funding for administration and to support the...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Health Strategies (19 Feb 2025)

Norma Foley: The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth commissioned a qualitative research study to examine the workplace experiences of parents coping with pregnancy loss. The study focuses on people who experience pregnancy loss prior to 24 weeks’ gestation, as people who have a pregnancy loss after 24 weeks’ gestation can avail of full maternity leave and...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: International Protection (19 Feb 2025)

Norma Foley: The Accommodation Recognition Payment (ARP) was introduced to recognise the generosity of people who have opened their homes to provide accommodation to Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection (BOTPs) who arrived in Ireland after fleeing the war in Ukraine. The ARP scheme is provided in Part 2 of the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2022 and is administered by the Department of...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (19 Feb 2025)

Norma Foley: Levels of staff turnover within early learning and care services are linked to pay and conditions. While Government is the primary funder of the sector as a whole, the State is not an employer of staff and neither I, nor my Department, set wage rates or working conditions. The Joint Labour Committee process is the formal mechanism by which employer and employee representatives can...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (19 Feb 2025)

Norma Foley: Levels of staff turnover within early learning and care services are linked to pay and conditions. While Government is the primary funder of the sector as a whole, the State is not an employer of staff and neither I, nor my Department, set wage rates or working conditions. The Joint Labour Committee process is the formal mechanism by which employer and employee representatives can...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (19 Feb 2025)

Norma Foley: Levels of staff turnover within early learning and care services are linked to pay and conditions. While Government is the primary funder of the sector as a whole, the State is not an employer of staff and neither I, nor my Department, set wage rates or working conditions. The Joint Labour Committee process is the formal mechanism by which employer and employee representatives can...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (19 Feb 2025)

Norma Foley: Staff who work in early learning and care settings fundamentally shape children’s experiences and are the primary drivers of quality. Recruiting and retaining appropriately qualified staff in early learning and care is also a key determinant of supply; qualifications of staff and the ratio of staff to children are stipulated by regulatory requirements and therefore the recruitment and...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Flexible Work Practices (19 Feb 2025)

Norma Foley: There are currently no planned changes to the blended working arrangements in place in my Department. A review of the Blended Working Policy currently in place is scheduled for Q2 2025.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: International Protection (18 Feb 2025)

Norma Foley: The relocation of Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection (BOTPs) from the location to which the Deputy refers are currently under pause until a decision is taken with regard to the future of the property. My Department will keep residents and providers informed about next steps. Over 420 accommodation contracts ended in 2024 as demand reduced. Contracts may also be ending where compliance...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: International Protection (18 Feb 2025)

Norma Foley: Currently, the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) is providing accommodation to almost 33,000 people. As Ireland and many other European countries are experiencing a significant increase in people seeking International Protection, there is significant pressure on our accommodation system, which operates at or near capacity on an ongoing basis. The Government is making...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Disability Services (18 Feb 2025)

Norma Foley: Thank you Deputy for your question. While the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) cannot comment publicly on individual cases, I can reassure the Deputy that IPAS officials are aware of the specific case and the identified needs. By way of context, I also wish to reassure the Deputy that IPAS has a number of protocols and procedures in place for considering...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (18 Feb 2025)

Norma Foley: Each year, Pobal compiles data from Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School Age Childcare (SAC) providers as part of the Early Years Sector Profile. For the 2022/2023 programme year, there were 162 ELC and SAC providers in Co. Wicklow that had a contract for at least one DCEDIY funded programme/scheme. The most recent published capacity data for the 2022/23 programme year also estimated...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (18 Feb 2025)

Norma Foley: Each year, Pobal compiles data from Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School Age Childcare (SAC) providers as part of the Early Years Sector Profile (AEYSP). The most recent published data for the 2022/23 programme year was based on responses from 4,009 service providers (88.6% of service providers registered for at least one DCEDIY programme/scheme). Data from responding services is used,...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Correspondence (18 Feb 2025)

Norma Foley: My Department continues to engage with St John Ambulance Ireland (SJAI) in terms of ongoing developments and compliance with Dr. Shannon’s recommendations. I am clear that all recommendations in the Shannon report should be complied with as soon as practicable by SJAI. SJAI has published three progress reports to date on the implementation of Dr. Shannon’s recommendations and...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Mother and Baby Homes (18 Feb 2025)

Norma Foley: The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and certain related matters, was established by the Irish Government in February 2015, to provide a full account of what happened to vulnerable women and children in Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions during the period 1922 to 1998. The Commission carried out a significant and wide-ranging statutory inquiry, independent...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Mother and Baby Homes (18 Feb 2025)

Norma Foley: The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes made findings in relation to the failings of the State and religious bodies, who together ran Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions. The Government believes that all relevant parties have a shared moral and ethical obligation to support appropriate actions in response to the Commission’s Report. In 2021, my...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Mother and Baby Homes (18 Feb 2025)

Norma Foley: The Government proposals for the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme were developed following deliberations on the very complex issues in question. They were informed by a consultation process undertaken with survivors, as well as a report and proposals from an Interdepartmental Group (IDG). Government ultimately decided on proposals which were, in overall terms, broader than those...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Mother and Baby Homes (18 Feb 2025)

Norma Foley: I am very conscious of the pain caused by the deaths of children who were resident in the former Mother and Baby institution in Sean Ross Abbey. The investigation of burial arrangements in Mother and Baby institutions, including the former institution at Sean Ross Abbey, was an important part of the work of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes. At the request of the...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Mother and Baby Homes (18 Feb 2025)

Norma Foley: With regard to children's homes such as industrial schools, reformatories and other institutions subject to state regulation or inspection, the Residential Institutions Redress Scheme (RIRS) accepted applications from 16 September 2002 to 17 September 2011 and made awards to persons who, as children, were abused while resident in these institutions. The Mother and Baby Institutions Payment...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Mother and Baby Homes (18 Feb 2025)

Norma Foley: The Government proposals for the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme were developed following extensive deliberations on the very complex issues in question. They were informed by a consultation process undertaken with survivors, as well as a report and proposals from an Interdepartmental Group (IDG). Government ultimately decided on proposals which were, in overall terms, broader...