Results 801-820 of 21,128 for speaker:James Reilly
- Other Questions: Social Workers Recruitment (28 Jan 2016)
James Reilly: I pay tribute to the quality and commitment of our social workers. The attrition rate among social workers here is much lower than in many other jurisdictions, which is testament to their commitment to their clients and their durability. When I visited Empowering People in Care, EPIC, one of the things those children highlighted was the lack of uniformity and consistency. There is nobody...
- Other Questions: Social Workers Recruitment (28 Jan 2016)
James Reilly: I would not disagree with anything the Deputy has said. This problem has been with us for decades and only a few years ago the Health Service Executive, HSE, and the then Minister were not even able to tell us how many children were dying in care. We have moved a long way towards transparency. The audit I asked Tusla to do was particularly important because it gave us an accurate picture...
- Other Questions: Child Protection Services (28 Jan 2016)
James Reilly: I welcome all the young people in the Visitors Gallery who have joined us. In 2015, Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, provided funding of €5.8 million to voluntary organisations offering a range of counselling and support services to children and families, including marriage and relationship counselling, child counselling and bereavement counselling. The funding provided by Tusla...
- Other Questions: Child Protection Services (28 Jan 2016)
James Reilly: In respect of the various situations the Deputy has outlined there would be a range of services available. In particular schools there is access to counselling services. There is the child and adolescent mental health service, CAMHS. There are youth clubs with mental health facilities provided by Jigsaw, which is very early intervention. It is run in such a way that young people can go in...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Child Care Services Provision (28 Jan 2016)
James Reilly: A number of child care support programmes are implemented by my Department to assist parents with the cost of child care. These include the early childhood care and education programme, ECCE, the community child care subvention programme, CCS, and the training and employment child care programmes, TEC. This funding is provided through the child care services in which children eligible under...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Child Care Services Provision (28 Jan 2016)
James Reilly: The Deputy will be aware that I am on the Dáil record as being very supportive, in both this and my previous Ministry, of early intervention and prevention, and of identifying children who are at risk and acting early. There are many good examples of programmes operating throughout the country through the ABC programme. I recently visited Sheriff Street, near the financial services...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Child Care Services Provision (28 Jan 2016)
James Reilly: The Cabinet will be very supportive of all of this. We are acutely aware that, in the course of the formulation of the interdepartmental group report and the studies that went with that, much research was done, both nationally and internationally, and I will come to that shortly. With regard to the Darndale-Belcamp integrated child care service specifically, it was established in January...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Child Care Services Provision (28 Jan 2016)
James Reilly: I will just finish the point, if I may.
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Child Care Services Provision (28 Jan 2016)
James Reilly: I accept that but I believe this will be of interest to everybody in the House. The fact that early intervention leads to better educational outcomes, more employability and better social skills benefits children directly. However, it also benefits society, a point on which I want to support the Deputy. It leads to less anti-social behaviour, less criminality later in life and it also...
- Other Questions: Social Workers Recruitment (28 Jan 2016)
James Reilly: At the end of December 2015, there were 1,402 whole-time equivalent social workers employed by Tusla. Tusla has been working in recent months to recruit some 239 more social workers to fill existing vacancies, and a number of these have now commenced employment. As the recruitment of social workers progresses, Tusla engages agency social workers to address staff shortages. At the end of...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Homeless Accommodation Provision (28 Jan 2016)
James Reilly: I am keenly aware that homelessness is very disruptive to normal family life, and it is a major issue that the Government is tackling. Homelessness can have such a negative impact on children's education and welfare as they move from one accommodation to another while still trying to attend the same school and maintain relationships with their friends. It impacts not just on their welfare...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Homeless Accommodation Provision (28 Jan 2016)
James Reilly: I do not know whether the Deputy heard what I said only two minutes ago. I never intimated for a moment that the function of the Child and Family Agency was anything other than to support families and children and keep children with their families, and to suggest otherwise is disingenuous. Most like-minded people would support the view that the best place for a child is with his or her...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Homeless Accommodation Provision (28 Jan 2016)
James Reilly: Regarding the homelessness issue, I do not want to have a political row with Deputy Troy on what may be our last oral parliamentary question session-----
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Homeless Accommodation Provision (28 Jan 2016)
James Reilly: -----but the reality is that for him to pretend that this problem has only recently arisen and that it has nothing to do with the disastrous housing policy of the last Government clearly flies in the face of all logic and reason.
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Homeless Accommodation Provision (28 Jan 2016)
James Reilly: We accept that this is a major problem and that it has got worse. Child poverty is a priority for the Government to address and, like many things, it takes time to address. We all know, ultimately, that the relief and resolution of this problem lies in increasing supply and not building houses where nobody wants to live.
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Homeless Accommodation Provision (28 Jan 2016)
James Reilly: It is interesting that the Deputy should mention 2013 because he will remember that we were still in a bailout then and were at the mercy of others, thanks to his party's actions-----
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Homeless Accommodation Provision (28 Jan 2016)
James Reilly: -----and lack of action-----
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Homeless Accommodation Provision (28 Jan 2016)
James Reilly: The Deputy will obviously pretend that houses can be produced without any resources because it suits his argument. He will pretend that houses can be produced overnight.
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Homeless Accommodation Provision (28 Jan 2016)
James Reilly: He will ignore the fact that the reason the country is blighted with ghost estates is because of his party's policies, which encouraged developers to build in places nobody wanted to live-----
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Homeless Accommodation Provision (28 Jan 2016)
James Reilly: -----and to build on floodplains where nobody will be able to live-----