Results 8,661-8,680 of 11,729 for speaker:Roderic O'Gorman

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Direct Provision System (19 Oct 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Government intends that the accommodation centres operated by the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS), which is part of my Department, will be independently monitored by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) for compliance with the National Standards for accommodation offered to people in the protection process.  These standards were adopted by...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Direct Provision System (19 Oct 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: All accommodation centres are required to provide free WiFi facilities for residents. In March 2020, the centre concerned put in place a programme to assist residents with all educational requirements, school liaison support, printing, photocopying, equipment distribution e.g., laptops/Tablets and access to Wi-Fi in specified areas. The accommodation centre to which the Deputy refers,...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: EU Programmes (19 Oct 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The text of the Recommendation for a European Child Guarantee was adopted by the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (EPSCO) on 14 June 2021. Ireland played an active role in the drafting of the text and related discussions. The European Child Guarantee aims to break the cycle of poverty and social exclusion across generations. The Guarantee seeks to prevent...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Fire Safety (19 Oct 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: In January 2021, I launched a capital funding programme to make fire safety grants available to early learning and childcare services.  The purpose of the grants, which were between €1, 000 and €10, 000,  was to support services to carry out remedial works required to receive a Fire Safety Certificate. The closing date for...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (19 Oct 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The introduction of the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) was a landmark moment for making high quality childcare more affordable and accessible to families in Ireland. The NCS provides financial support to help parents meet the cost of childcare and, to support better outcomes for children.  The NCS entails a fundamental shift away from subsidies grounded in social protection...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (19 Oct 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The €69 million to which the Deputy refers is for the new core funding stream. Core funding will be a payment directly to Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare (ELC and SAC) providers who sign up to participate. A condition was this funding is that providers will not to increase parents’ fees for ELC and SAC. Core funding will be available from September 2022....

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (19 Oct 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The introduction of the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) was a landmark moment for making high quality childcare more affordable and accessible to families in Ireland. The NCS provides financial support to help parents meet the cost of childcare and to support better outcomes for children.  Subsidies can be income assessed or universal. Whereas up to now, the universal subsidy...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (19 Oct 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: In Budget 2022 I have secured an additional €78m in early years and school age childcare funding, bringing the total investment in the sector to €716m next year. This will allow my department to bring forward a substantial and comprehensive package of developments to achieve significant progress on its policy priorities of affordability, quality and sustainability of ELC. Some...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (19 Oct 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: In Budget 2022 I have secured an additional €78m in early learning and care and school age childcare funding, bringing the total investment in the sector to €716m next year. This will allow my Department to bring forward a substantial and comprehensive package of developments to achieve significant progress on its policy priorities of affordable, high quality, inclusive and...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (19 Oct 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: In Budget 2022 I have secured an additional €78m in early learning and care and school age childcare funding, bringing the total investment in the sector to €716m next year. The €716 million investment in ELC and SACincludes €69 million for a new Core Funding stream for providers in 2022.This will allow my Department to bring forward a substantial and...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (19 Oct 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: In Budget 2022 I have secured an additional €78m in early learning and care and school age childcare funding, bringing the total investment in the sector to €716m next year. This will allow my Department to bring forward a substantial and comprehensive package of developments to achieve significant progress on its policy priorities of affordable, high quality, inclusive and...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Offices (19 Oct 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: I can confirm to the Deputy that my Department currently has two office areas: - 2nd and 3rd floors, Block 1, Miesian Plaza, 50 - 58 Baggot Street Lower, Dublin 2; and - 2nd and 3rd floors, Montague Court, 7 - 11 Montague Street, Dublin 2.  My Department has occupied its headquarters in Miesian Plaza since May 2018. This building is leased by the OPW - the rent is paid...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Offices (19 Oct 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: I can advise the Deputy that my Department does not currently rent or own any offices which are not in use by my Department. My Department has two office areas: - 2nd and 3rd floors, Block 1, Miesian Plaza, 50 - 58 Baggot Street Lower, Dublin 2; and - 2nd and 3rd floors, Montague Court, 7 - 11 Montague Street, Dublin 2.  Both of these offices are occupied on a daily basis.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Youth Services (19 Oct 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: I propose to take Questions Nos. 657 to 660, inclusive, together. My Department currently allocates targeted youth funding of €41.8 million through the UBU Your Place Your Space scheme. The mission of the scheme is to provide out-of-school supports to marginalised, disadvantaged or vulnerable young people in their communities to enable them to overcome adverse...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (19 Oct 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The play-pod model in ELC and SAC settings is recommended as an alternative to social distancing. The purpose of ‘play-pods’ is to limit the number of people a child has contact with, and to support close, positive interactions between children and their adult caregivers. This system also reduces the amount of contact adults have with each other. The HSE has not given any date...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Child and Family Agency (19 Oct 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: Under section 56 of the Child and Family Agency Act 2013, Tusla may enter arrangements with organisations to provide child and family services or services associated with the care and protection of victims of DSGBV. Section 59 of the Act provides for similar arrangements through a grant or contribution in kind to non-profit organisations for services supplemental to those provided by the...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Covid-19 Pandemic (14 Oct 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: In the table below, the Deputy can see the number of persons quarantined on arrival since January, 2021, to date. As requested, this is broken down by month. Similarly, the table sets out the numbers of persons that have quarantined beyond 14 days. The average length of stay for those staying beyond 14 days is 21 days. New arrivals since Jan 2021 Month of Admission: 2021 ...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Rights of the Child (14 Oct 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child has three Optional Protocols: - an Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict; - an Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography; and - an Optional Protocol on a communications procedure. Ireland has ratified the first and third protocols in 2002 and 2014 respectively. Ireland...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Family Resource Centres (14 Oct 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: Tusla administers the Family Resource Centre (FRC) Programme which provides funding support to 121 FRCs across the country. My Department allocates core funding for the FRC Programme and since 2019, an additional €1.5m has been provided in funding. This means that funding for 2021 will amount to €18 million. Organisations that wish to join the Programme are advised to...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Assisted Decision-Making (14 Oct 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 (the 2015 Act) is a very important piece of legislation that changes the existing law on capacity from the status approach of the wardship system to a flexible functional approach, whereby capacity is assessed on an issue and time-specific basis. It will abolish the wards of court system for adults by repealing the Lunacy Regulation (Ireland)...