Results 781-800 of 11,859 for speaker:Roderic O'Gorman

Maternity Protection Bill 2024 [Seanad]: Second Stage (17 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: No, it was fully published.

Maternity Protection Bill 2024 [Seanad]: Second Stage (17 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank all the Deputies for their contributions and their assurance of support for both the core legislation and the two sets of amendments that we will seek to bring forward next week. In terms of the process, the amendments on NDAs relating to private records will be printed by the Bills Office tomorrow and will be available for full view. Next Wednesday we will have the opportunity...

Maternity Protection Bill 2024 [Seanad]: Second Stage (17 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: It is built in.

Maternity Protection Bill 2024 [Seanad]: Second Stage (17 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak on Second Stage of this important legislation. It is incredibly worthwhile legislation, which will have a very real impact on women at a very important juncture in their lives. The Bill provides for two main areas of reform. The first is to allow a pause in maternity leave for treatment...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (17 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: New Partner Service is defined strictly to mean services that were not in existence on 30 September 2021. Services that have made changes such as name, address, owner, or legal structure do not qualify as new Partner Services. If a Partner Service undergoes a closure and has been closed for over 6 months and has fully deregistered with Tusla, and subsequently a new service registers under...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (17 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: The introduction of Core Funding in 2022 brought a significant increase in investment for the sector, with €259m of funding paid directly to services in year 1 of the scheme, of which €210.8 million was entirely new funding. This funding, which increased by 11% (to €287 million) in year 2, increased again by a further 15% in year 3 (to €331 million). In view of...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (17 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: My Department is currently collating the information requested and a reply will issue directly to the Deputy in due course.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Child Care Law Reporting Project (17 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: Child care proceedings ordinarily occur otherwise than in public, and court reporting has an important role in highlighting for policy makers those issues that may impact on children as they arise in these proceedings. My Department renews the court reporting project periodically through a competitive tender process. The current iteration of court reporting began in November 2021 and will...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: International Protection (17 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: Huge efforts are underway, within this Department and as part of a whole-of-Government response, to source and bring into use suitable facilities to provide shelter and safety to international protection applicants. Providing reception conditions – accommodation and other basic supports – to applicants is part of Irish and EU law and is also part of our humanitarian duty to...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: International Protection (17 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the Deputy for this question. A response will be provided directly to the Deputy in the coming days.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: International Protection (17 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: In March 2024 Government approved a new Comprehensive Accommodation Strategy (CAS) for International Protection applicants. The strategy seeks to address the current accommodation shortfall, while reforming the system over the longer term to ensure the State will always be able to meet its international commitments. Accommodation in the new strategy will be delivered through the following...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: International Protection (17 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: In March 2024 Government approved a new Comprehensive Accommodation Strategy (CAS) for International Protection applicants. The strategy seeks to address the current accommodation shortfall, while reforming the system over the longer term to ensure the State will always be able to meet its international commitments. Accommodation in the new strategy will be delivered through the following...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Social Enterprise Sector (17 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: My Department is currently collating the information requested and a reply will issue directly to the Deputy as soon as possible.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Child Care Law Reporting Project (17 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: Child care proceedings ordinarily occur otherwise than in public, and court reporting has an important role in highlighting for policy makers those issues that may impact on children as they arise in these proceedings. My Department renews the court reporting project periodically through a competitive tender process. The current iteration of court reporting began in November 2021 and will...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Supplementary)
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the Chair for facilitating our meeting today. I thank the committee for making time to consider this Supplementary Estimate for the children, equality, disability, integration and youth Vote group. We need a Supplementary Estimate at this point principally due to the expectation that the Vote will breach its total allocation before the end of November 2024. The Supplementary...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Supplementary)
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank Deputy Coveney for his questions and kind remarks, and his recognition of the work that officials here and the many officials in my Department do every day for some of the most vulnerable people in our society. On the first point on IPAS processing times, I am not able to give the most up-to-date figures because the Minister, Deputy McEntee, deals with processing through the...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Supplementary)
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: There are a couple of hundred. We have 5,300 children in foster care, which is 90% of all children in care. I might get an official to give Deputy Coveney the exact figure. It is a couple of hundred.

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Supplementary)
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: It is a significant driver of our costs. Tusla and the HSE have a protocol for children with a very significant disability who are now in the care of Tusla. From a budgetary point of view, there is a shared responsibility for meeting the needs of those children. That is a significant driver of costs too. As the Deputy knows, in 2024, we have taken significant steps to boost foster care,...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Supplementary)
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the Deputy for his comments. I will make one comment. We know we are moving towards the end of the term of office of this Government. I put on record the value I see in the decision that was made by this Government to take disability out of the Department of Health and put it into our Department. It was made at the start of the Government's term of office. The change happened...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Supplementary)
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I see a very real value in child law reporting and I want to see that continue. One particular organisation has the contract at the moment. That was through a tendering process. We cannot just extend it for that organisation. There has to be a re-tendering process. I met the organisation in March and explained that was the situation. Between then and now, there were some delays in...