Results 6,401-6,420 of 7,359 for speaker:Katherine Zappone

Other Questions: Early Childhood Care and Education (9 Jun 2016)

Katherine Zappone: The point the Deputy identified in his question is critical in terms of the upskilling and continual professional development and education of practitioners and professionals in early childhood care and education in ensuring that when children with disabilities become part of their settings they know best how to ensure and enable the achievement of their potential. It was also the case not...

Other Questions: Child Protection Services Provision (9 Jun 2016)

Katherine Zappone: I thank Deputy Rabbitte for her excellent questions. I will certainly refer back to many of them. With regard to the efforts to recruit and retain staff, especially social workers, Tusla has an in-house recruitment function. It is reducing recruitment timelines and is identifying bottlenecks and working, where appropriate, with the national recruitment service of the HSE. Tusla is...

Other Questions: Early Childhood Care and Education (9 Jun 2016)

Katherine Zappone: I will shortly launch a new access and inclusion model to enable children with disabilities to participate in the ECCE programme. Importantly, it is not based on SNAs but on a system of seven levels of progressive support. This model is tailored to the specific needs of children - moving from universal to targeted - to enable the full inclusion and meaningful participation of children with...

Other Questions: Early Childhood Care and Education (9 Jun 2016)

Katherine Zappone: I appreciate the Deputy's concerns. What I have outlined in my measure is a move and a transition to a new way. It is a transition to a new way that was developed on the basis of extensive consultation, research and work with experts who are now designing around what the research indicates may be a better way to ensure inclusion and access of our very beautiful young children who have some...

Other Questions: Early Childhood Care and Education (9 Jun 2016)

Katherine Zappone: We are trying to move towards allowing for applications for a preschool enrolment in 2016. The full capacity will not be rolled out but it is going to be an additional resource, plan and implementation of efforts to be inclusive regarding children who are disabled. If I understand the Deputy's question, I am not necessarily anticipating any moves to look for additional SNAs because what is...

Other Questions: Homeless Persons Supports (9 Jun 2016)

Katherine Zappone: I agree that this is a great concern for all of us and it is a priority for me as Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, both in terms of the specific aspect the Deputy raises in respect of adult homeless accommodation and the wider issues I referred to in reply to an earlier question. Recent reports of a number of families having to avail of emergency accommodation in facilities that are...

Other Questions: Homeless Persons Supports (9 Jun 2016)

Katherine Zappone: Deputy Coppinger is absolutely right. All the issues she identifies are very distressing for me as Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, but also just as a human being and a citizen of this country. I referred to some of this in an earlier question, but I have already had a number of meetings and conversations with many of the non-governmental organisations in this area, especially in...

Other Questions: Homeless Persons Supports (9 Jun 2016)

Katherine Zappone: Deputy Coppinger is right that it was controversial. It was not a universally popular decision and I am aware of that. I discerned it carefully. The Deputy is absolutely right in that there is a major challenge here. I have been describing to her and to Deputy Rabbitte earlier how this issue in particular is a key concern of mine, and I have already done a number of things in terms of...

Other Questions: Child Protection Services Provision (9 Jun 2016)

Katherine Zappone: As part of its budget submission for 2016, Tusla identified a need for extra staffing to meet critical service concerns, including children with no allocated social worker. Funding of €6.1 million was allocated to Tusla for this purpose. Tusla has set a target of a net increase of 168 social workers by the end of 2016. It will be important to recruit other grades as well to ensure...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: After-School Support Services (9 Jun 2016)

Katherine Zappone: 4 o’clock I am in complete agreement with Deputy Smith's comment that there are problems in both the private child care setting as well as the community and not-for-profit setting. I have done much work in the area over the years and even in community settings for providing child care where there is public money going in, it is still not enough for the people whose children need...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: After-School Support Services (9 Jun 2016)

Katherine Zappone: I could not agree more with the Deputy. In the context of my Department's spend, I am delighted that developing a more sustainable, affordable and quality child care system, particularly regarding prevention and early intervention, is second only to the expenditure for Tusla. For the past 15 years, in my professional life I have been a crusader and campaigner for prevention and early...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Care Orders (9 Jun 2016)

Katherine Zappone: I am aware of the Deputy's concern in this regard in light of other exchanges we have had. Perhaps we can tease this out a little more. The latest figures available from the Child and Family Agency, Tusla, are for 2014. They indicate that there were 435 children under new supervision orders throughout 2014 and that there were 413 children subject to a supervision order on 31 December...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Care Orders (9 Jun 2016)

Katherine Zappone: I have the greatest respect for the experience from which the Deputy asks this question. I recall her referring to the issue in earlier exchanges. Currently there is no evidence to suggest that social workers apply for care orders rather than supervision orders because care orders are less time consuming. I acknowledge that the Deputy has a suspicion or an intuition in that regard but...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Care Orders (9 Jun 2016)

Katherine Zappone: May I say again how much I respect the Deputy's experience and commitment to the welfare of children, out of which she raises this question. I have argued there is no evidence and the Deputy has indicated that perhaps Tusla has an obligation to collect that evidence. I trust the context from which the Deputy speaks and her concern. I will commit to continuing this conversation and seeing...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Area Based Childhood Programme (9 Jun 2016)

Katherine Zappone: I am in agreement with what Deputy Rabbitte is outlining, although as she is well aware the area-based childhood programmes are largely focused more on prevention and early intervention. Having a life cycle plan is a great idea. There needs to be greater planning in terms of linking that prevention in early intervention through to school completion to keep our young people in school, with...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Area Based Childhood Programme (9 Jun 2016)

Katherine Zappone: In terms of some of the issues Deputy Rabbitte raised in her second question, in terms of a multi-annual granting programme approach, that is certainly what was done in recent years, with the support of philanthropy. It is much more challenging when we do not necessarily have that kind of philanthropic support but I would be very much in favour of advocating for that. Regarding the 13...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: After-School Support Services (9 Jun 2016)

Katherine Zappone: I believe I understood the core of Deputy Smith's question but it is important to note that thousands of private providers currently deliver child care through publicly funded child care programmes including the early childhood care and education scheme, the training and employment childcare scheme and, since February of this year, the community childcare subvention programme. My Department...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: School Completion Programme (9 Jun 2016)

Katherine Zappone: I assure the Deputy that I absolutely share his deep concern on this issue. The issue is our children and especially those who may not have had the same kind of start that the Deputy, I or others in this Chamber have had. There was a section on funding in the ESRI review of the school completion programme. I am aware that there has been widespread dissatisfaction with the current level of...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: School Completion Programme (9 Jun 2016)

Katherine Zappone: I thank the Deputy for raising the additional question on this issue. I referred to this issue earlier in the debate on the Adoption (Amendment) Bill because it came up in that context. As I said then, I am aware of the fact that we have a commitment to reform the monitoring of child benefit payments by amalgamating school attendance monitoring systems in order to address poor attendance...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Area Based Childhood Programme (9 Jun 2016)

Katherine Zappone: The area based childhood programme is a joint prevention and early intervention initiative led by my Department and the Atlantic Philanthropies. It is a time-bound, co-funding arrangement with resources of €29.7 million from 2013 to 2017. It aims to test and evaluate prevention and early intervention approaches to improve outcomes for children and families living in poverty in 13...