Results 1,001-1,020 of 20,818 for speaker:Norma Foley

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: School Accommodation (17 Jun 2025)

Norma Foley: The Building Blocks Extension Grant Scheme was launched on 4th November 2024. The closing date for applications was 30th January. There were four strands to the scheme: Community Construction, Community Extension, Community Purchasing and Private Extension. A total of 78 applications were received. These applications came from a variety of locations across the country. All applications...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (17 Jun 2025)

Norma Foley: The Programme for Government commits to “progressively reduce the cost of childcare to €200 per month per child.” This commitment will be achieved over the lifetime of the Government.Initial steps have already been taken. Earlier this month, I announced the introduction of maximum fee caps for all Partner Services in Core Funding from September 2025. The fee freeze will...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (17 Jun 2025)

Norma Foley: The information required to give an accurate figure on the number of children who will benefit from the new Fee Caps is not currently available to my Department. However, I am confident that the introduction of maximum fee caps will benefit families who are facing the highest fees across the country. Around 10 per cent of current Partner Services will have to reduce at least one of their...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (17 Jun 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, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (17 Jun 2025)

Norma Foley: The Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) was introduced in 2016 to ensure that children with additional needs or a disability could access and meaningfully participate in the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme. In line with a commitment in First 5: A Whole-of-Government Strategy for Babies, Young Children and their Families 2019-2028, an independent evaluation of AIM was...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Reviews (17 Jun 2025)

Norma Foley: I welcome the current Programme for Government commitment to establish a National Child Death Review Mechanism on a statutory basis. Additionally, as Minister I also welcome the Ombudsman for Children’s report titled Child Death Review: The Case for a National Statutory Review Mechanism for the Deaths of Children in Ireland. I am conscious that the Ombudsman for Children’s...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Funding (17 Jun 2025)

Norma Foley: Core Funding programme year 2025/2026 introduced a new maximum fee cap for early learning and childcare services participating in Core Funding alongside record State funding of €390 million this year for the Scheme. This new maximum fee cap introduced is for all new and existing services participating in Core Funding. This applies to all services and scales across 6 bands, and...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Schemes (17 Jun 2025)

Norma Foley: I propose to take Questions Nos. 664, 665 and 666 together. As at Monday 9th June 2025, almost 6,600 applications to the Payment Scheme had been received, of which almost 6,300 are completed applications that entered the processing system. Decisions, or “notices of determinations” have issued in over 5,800 cases, over 82% of which contain an offer of an award and those...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Funding (17 Jun 2025)

Norma Foley: The National Centre for Research and Remembrance, to be located in Sean MacDermott Street, Dublin 1, will comprise a museum and exhibition space, a research centre and repository of records related to institutional trauma in the 20th century, and a garden space for reflection and remembrance. This Centre will honour equally all those who spent time in Industrial Schools, Magdalen Laundries,...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Burial Grounds (17 Jun 2025)

Norma Foley: The Institutional Burials Act 2022 provides the underlying legislative basis for an intervention, whereby the remains of those who died in residential institutions, and who were buried in a manifestly inappropriate manner, may be recovered and re-interred in a respectful and appropriate way. The legislation requires that Government must be satisfied that burials have taken place and must have...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Funding (17 Jun 2025)

Norma Foley: I propose to take Questions Nos. 670, 671 and 672 together. The Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) is administered by Pobal on behalf of my Department. My Department and Pobal have recently received a number of queries relating to the attendance of children in receipt of AIM supports, with regard to absences due to illness or holiday. Pobal recently published a notice on the Early Years...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Funding (17 Jun 2025)

Norma Foley: While my Department cannot mandate providers to participate in Core Funding, every effort has been made to carefully design the scheme to meet the policy objectives including to achieve high levels of participation by providers. Over 92% of services are currently signed up to year 3 of Core Funding. The table below outlines the Core Funding uptake in Dublin City, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown ,...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Care Services (17 Jun 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, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (17 Jun 2025)

Norma Foley: The National Childcare Scheme (NCS) provides financial supports to parents to help reduce the cost of early learning and childcare. The Scheme has undergone a number of enhancements in recent years to further improve affordability for parents. These include the extension of the Universal subsidy to all children under 15 and two increases to the minimum hourly subsidy, which is now worth...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Data (17 Jun 2025)

Norma Foley: The information required to give an accurate figure on the overall reduction of income from fees is not currently available to my Department. However, I am confident that the introduction of maximum fee caps will not impact on services sustainability and will benefit families who are facing the highest fees across the country. Around 10 per cent of Partner Services will be potentially...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Funding (17 Jun 2025)

Norma Foley: As with all State expenditure, there is a limited amount of funding available in a given year and adequate budgetary controls are required to ensure that expenditure does not exceed the funding allocated for a specific purpose. The maximum Base Rate allocation is an enhanced budgetary control for Core Funding that is being introduced incrementally to manage and monitor the impact on...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Womans Health (17 Jun 2025)

Norma Foley: The Government is committed to ensuring that workplaces consider the reality of employees’ lives and recognise that menstruation can be a key health issue for some women. The need for more awareness within the workplace of the impact of the symptoms of menstruation and related health issues is acknowledged by Government as necessary to promote changes in the culture, policies and...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Meetings (17 Jun 2025)

Norma Foley: AGALI (Association Guardian ad litem Ireland) is a professional organisation for Guardian ad litem in Ireland formally established in April 2025. Through the Child and Family Agency (Tusla), we understand there are approximately one hundred Guardians ad litem appointed by the Courts to 3,500 children (2024). Approximately, seventy Guardians ad litem are members to the Association. In...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Guardians Ad Litem (17 Jun 2025)

Norma Foley: In 2025 payroll budget for the Department has funded certain newly appointed staff members of the GAL Executive Office including a Director of the Service, Head of Corporate Services and the Head Guardian ad litem. A dedicated team of nine staff have also been redeployed within the Department to prepare for the commencement of the Guardian ad litem National Service. €400,000 non pay...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Guardians Ad Litem (17 Jun 2025)

Norma Foley: Information available to the Department of Children Disability and Equality through the Child and Family Agency (Tusla) for 2024 indicate that there are one hundred individuals appointed as Guardians ad litem to approximately 3,500 children. The Executive Office is in the process of undertaking an analysis of this data so as to develop an operating model including the numbers of Guardians ad...