Results 61-80 of 20,049 for speaker:Norma Foley

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Childcare Services (9 Jul 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: Departmental Expenditure (9 Jul 2025)

Norma Foley: I thank the Deputy for his question. The Department has not incurred expenditure on formal media training during this time period. When the need has arisen, training has been provided in-house.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Departmental Functions (8 Jul 2025)

Norma Foley: Following the formation of the new Government, the Department of Children, Disability and Equality has been the subject of two transfer of functions orders in 2025. This has seen the transfer out of migration functions and their associated financial allocations (€2.046 billion, 24.8% of the 2025 gross voted allocation) to the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, and the...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Parental Leave (8 Jul 2025)

Norma Foley: There have been significant developments in the entitlements to family leaves for working families in recent years. Under the Parental Leave (Amendment) Act 2019, an employee who is a relevant parent in respect of a child under the age 12 is entitled to 26 weeks’ unpaid parental leave for each child. Where a child has a disability or long-term illness, the entitlement can continue...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Departmental Expenditure (8 Jul 2025)

Norma Foley: I propose to take Questions Nos. 721 and 722 together. I can confirm that my Department has not had any expenditure on the services specified in the years 2015 to 2025.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Departmental Advertising (8 Jul 2025)

Norma Foley: I thank the Deputy for his question. Below, in tabular form, is the information requested. 2025 Campaign Duration Total Spend Objective Platforms Agency Social Work Recruitment Campaign April - May €83,000 This Campaign is to...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Departmental Expenditure (8 Jul 2025)

Norma Foley: Below, in tabular form, is the information requested. There was no relevant expenditure in the years prior to 2017. Year Supplier Contract Nature Amount 2017 Persuasion Republic Social Marketing consultancy €66,075.59 2019 Inventive Marketing Marketing support for a campaign...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Departmental Expenditure (8 Jul 2025)

Norma Foley: We will need some time to pull this information together and will contact the Deputy with a full response in the near future.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Childcare Services (8 Jul 2025)

Norma Foley: The National Childcare Scheme provides financial support to help parents to meet the cost of childcare and allow children to access Early Learning and School Age Childcare. The subsidies are progressive in nature. All families can receive a universal subsidy, but the highest subsides are provided to families with the lowest levels of income through an income assessment process. Also, the...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Departmental Data (8 Jul 2025)

Norma Foley: It is not be possible for my Department, or Tusla, to answer this question. Neither my Department nor Tusla holds information on current prisoners in the State, therefore it is not possible to establish whether a specific prisoner was previously in the care of the State or not, as the case may be. To facilitate the answering of this question, a significant data sharing exercise between the...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Early Childhood Care and Education (8 Jul 2025)

Norma Foley: The Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) is a programme of supports designed to ensure that children with additional needs can access the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme. Its goal is to empower early learning and care providers to deliver an inclusive pre-school experience, ensuring that every eligible child can meaningfully participate in the ECCE programme and reap the...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Childcare Services (8 Jul 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: Departmental Funding (8 Jul 2025)

Norma Foley: My Department operates a funding process for Support Organisations (formerly National Voluntary Childcare Organisations). Funding through this process is available to non-governmental organisations and not-for-profit organisations with special interests and expertise in the Early Learning and Care (ELC), School Age Childcare (SAC) and Childminding sector. The funding process offers...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Mother and Baby Homes (8 Jul 2025)

Norma Foley: The Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme opened for applications in March 2024. The Scheme acknowledges circumstances experienced while resident in a Mother and Baby Institution and the associated conditions, shame and stigma endured over a period of time. Whilst financial payments and health supports are available to eligible individuals through the Scheme, it is beyond the scope of...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Childcare Services (8 Jul 2025)

Norma Foley: Both the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Programme and the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) are currently available to parents regardless of whether or not the early learning and childcare service their child is attending is participating in Core Funding. These schemes have made a significant impact on improving affordability of early learning and childcare for families. The...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Childcare Services (8 Jul 2025)

Norma Foley: I propose to take Questions Nos. 742 and 748 together. The correspondence mentioned was received in my Department on 02/07/2025 and was shared with Pobal who administer the scheme on our behalf. Pobal will be in contact shortly with Ms. Jackson in regard to her application. Pobal and Better Start engage directly with service providers in regard to applications, providing advice and...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: EU Directives (8 Jul 2025)

Norma Foley: The Directives on Standards for Equality Bodies set minimum requirements for the effective and independent operation of Equality Bodies in a number of key areas, in order to allow them to carry out their work more effectively in all Member States and to ensure a more uniform application of EU equal treatment law. The Directives provide that the Commission shall, by means of an implementing...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Early Childhood Care and Education (8 Jul 2025)

Norma Foley: I firmly believe the level of pay for early years educators and school-age childcare practitioners should reflect the value of their work for children, families, society and the economy. The State is not the employer and therefore does not set the pay or conditions for employees in either early learning and care (ELC) or school-age childcare (SAC) services. However, there is now,...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Early Childhood Care and Education (8 Jul 2025)

Norma Foley: My Department is aware through Pobal who administer the scheme on behalf of my Department, that some providers have been experiencing a delay in processing level 7 applications. The timeline for processing applications is currently under review between officials in my Department and Pobal. As scheme administrators, Pobal and Better Start engage directly with service providers in regard to...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Early Childhood Care and Education (8 Jul 2025)

Norma Foley: The backdating of AIM level 7 supports to a service provider are currently under review between officials in my Department and Pobal who administer the scheme on our behalf. As scheme administrators, Pobal and Better Start engage directly with service providers in regard to applications, providing advice and assistance as needed. A key objective of the ongoing review is to learn from provider...