Results 821-840 of 20,818 for speaker:Norma Foley

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Childcare Services (10 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: Special Educational Needs (10 Jul 2025)

Norma Foley: Ensuring access to early learning and childcare for all children, is a key priority for me as Minister for Children, Disability and Equality. A number of Programmes within my Department contribute to this objective. Firstly, the ECCE Programme offers quality early learning and care without charge to the parents of all children within the eligible age range of 2 years and 8 months and 5...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Disabilities Assessments (9 Jul 2025)

Norma Foley: This Government absolutely recognises that waiting times for Assessment of Need (AON) services and therapeutic interventions are far too long and is committed to improving the current situation. It is important to be aware that, while children have a right to apply for an AON, they do not need one in order to access health services, including those provided by Primary Care,...

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

Norma Foley: Prior to each year of Core Funding commencing, officials in my Department review the application system and make improvements to the system where necessary based on feedback from the sector about using the Core Funding Application system. Any enhancements made to the system are made with a view to making the system as user friendly as possible for providers in the sector. A significant...

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

Norma Foley: Many families use the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) to help reduce the cost of early learning and childcare. Under the Scheme, subsidies are awarded as an hourly rate, with a maximum number of weekly hours for which the subsidy applies. The scheme enables parents and services to agree on subsidised sessional, part time or full time care arrangements as required. Discussion and agreement...

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

Norma Foley: Significant improvements have been made in the entitlements to both paid and unpaid leaves in recent years, including by extending paid parent's leave for parents to allow them to spend more time with their baby during their earliest years. First 5, the Whole-of-Government Strategy for Babies, Young Children and their Families 2019-2028, committed to build incrementally over the course of...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Early Childhood Care and Education (9 Jul 2025)

Norma Foley: I am sorry to hear of the difficulties being experienced by the parents of the child named. Early Learning and Care (ELC) and school aged childcare (SAC) services are provided by private enterprises, either privately owned or operated by community organisations and are free to operate their own admissions policies. My Department has no role in this regard. My Department funds a national...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Gender Equality (9 Jul 2025)

Norma Foley: The Pay Transparency Directive (officially known as Directive (EU) 2023/970 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 May 2023 to strengthen the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women through pay transparency and enforcement mechanisms) came into force in June 2023. Member States have three years from that date to...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Disability and Equality: Child Protection (9 Jul 2025)

Norma Foley: The Government is firmly committed to ratifying the Second Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Ireland signed the Second Optional Protocol in 2000, and the Government is committed to taking the further step of ratifying it as soon as possible. In Irish treaty practice, the State must be in a position to meet the obligations it assumes under the terms of an...

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...