Results 11,181-11,200 of 11,997 for speaker:Roderic O'Gorman

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Departmental Staff (10 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: As the Deputy may be aware the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY ) was established on 15 October 2020. My Department can only provide information on DCEDIY for October 2020. Prior to the establishment of DCEDIY my Department was formerly known as DCYA. Please find staffing details in the table below for both DCEDIY 2020 and DCYA 2019- 2016. DPER...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Refugee Resettlement Programme (5 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: In March this year, an Irish selection mission took place in Beirut, in cooperation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The resettlement of refugees from Lebanon was interrupted earlier in the year by Covid-19 restrictions. I am pleased to inform the Deputy that plans are currently in train for the arrival later this month of 198 programme refugees interviewed and security...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Mother and Baby Homes Inquiries (5 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: I am conscious of the significant work undertaken by the Collaborative Forum to identify the priority concerns and needs of survivors and I commend the Forum for their efforts. During 2020 my department has had a number of both email correspondence and phone calls with members of the Collaborative Forum on various issues. I have previously stated my commitment to establishing renewed...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Equality Issues (5 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: Although my Department has no functional role in respect of Ireland's votes at the United Nations in the election of the Committee overseeing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, I and my colleague the Minister of State for Disability of course take an interest in votes concerning the UNCRPD. I understand that the Department of Foreign Affairs has...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Mother and Baby Homes Inquiries (4 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the Deputy for her query. I acknowledge the importance of the issue of access to the commission's archive, which is due to be deposited with my Department at the end of February 2021. I am committed to implementing fully the right of access under the GDPR for those who wish to access their personal information from that date. I can confirm that my Department will provide...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Mother and Baby Homes Inquiries (4 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Deputy is absolutely right to say that survivors are essential to all of this. That is the key concern. As I acknowledged in my earlier contributions, I did not do enough to reach out to survivors prior to the introduction of this legislation. I am in the process of rectifying this. I have engaged with survivors this week, including today, and I will continue to do so. There will...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Early Years Sector (4 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: My Department operates an annual capital funding programme for which €8.3 million has been allocated for 2021 for Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School Aged Childcare (SAC) services. The purposes for which this funding can be used are determined on an annual basis by my Department. I will announce details of the 2021 capital programme in the coming months. My Department funds a...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: International Protection (4 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: Responsibility for the provision of accommodation for applicants for International Protection transferred to my Department from the Department of Justice on 14 October, 2020. On 21 October 2020 I published the report by the Advisory Group on the Provision of Support, including Accommodation, to Persons in the International Protection Process. The report had been submitted to Government...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Mother and Baby Homes Inquiries (4 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Collaborative Forum process was established by my predecessor as a representative body to advise on the issues of priority for former residents of the institutions under investigation by the Commission. The Collaborative Forum last met formally in December 2019. The process was unfortunately interrupted by the general election and subsequent change in Government. In addition, it was...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Programme for Government (4 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: The children and family support section of the Programme for Government contains a range of commitments which I will continue to progress. The majority of these will not require legislation in order to be implemented. In relation to those that will require a legislative measure, the position is as follows. My Department has commenced preliminary legislative work in respect of preparing...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: National Disability Inclusion Strategy: Discussion (4 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the committee for the invitation to attend the meeting today, and I look forward to a strong relationship with the committee in my role as Minister. Disability will fall within the new extended remit of my Department. By bringing responsibility for the delivery of disability services from the Department of Health and responsibility for equality policy from the Department of Justice,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: National Disability Inclusion Strategy: Discussion (4 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: As the Deputy has said, putting the needs of, and giving voice to, persons with a disability has to be absolutely at the core of what we achieve in this committee. When the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and I were initially appointed, we met representatives of disabled persons organisations in late July and August. The Disability Federation of Ireland really flagged with us that its...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: National Disability Inclusion Strategy: Discussion (4 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: "Command" is a big word but it is about working together. My ability and that of the Minister of State within the Department and across government is seen in the very significant delivery of funding for disability in this budget. The Minister of State led the charge on that. That €100 million is very significant for next year. It is not commanding; it is just working together and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: National Disability Inclusion Strategy: Discussion (4 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: Deputy Hourigan makes an important point on output legitimacy in these strategies. It is one that we are noticing in all the equality strategies. I will chair four other equality strategy bodies, while the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, chairs this one. The European disability strategy ends in either 2020 or 2021 and the national disability inclusion strategy ends in 2021. We may...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: National Disability Inclusion Strategy: Discussion (4 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: On the optional protocol, the ratification of the convention is a step of great importance and we are already seeing the ripple effects of that in the context of creating the network of decision support services, which is all as a consequence of that. The benefit of the optional protocol would be to allow individual persons with a disability to petition the UN committee and to allow the UN...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: National Disability Inclusion Strategy: Discussion (4 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Deputy is correct about the importance of being able to trace where the money is being spent. We hope that removing the €2 billion disability budget from the Department of Health and bringing it into the new Department will strongly enhance traceability. It is still a significant sum, but taking it out of the existing €90 million budget will enhance the ability of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: National Disability Inclusion Strategy: Discussion (4 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: On the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act, the key is to get the decision support service in place. That is the blockage at the moment. Members will have seen that the budget provided a substantial additional funding in that regard. An extra €2 million was provided for next year, bringing the total funding to €5.8 million. The key thing we need to do is to provide for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: National Disability Inclusion Strategy: Discussion (4 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: As regards the optional protocol, I have set out a clear pathway towards when we will do that. I cannot give an explicit date today, but we want to see the first cycle of our membership of the convention go through first. Once the UN committee responds to our State report, there might be a need to do other pieces of work or a requirement for other legislative measures which it identifies in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: National Disability Inclusion Strategy: Discussion (4 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: With regard to the transition, the Senator is right that it should be as smooth and swift as possible while, at the same time, taking the necessary time to undertake such a big restructuring of Departments and of departmental responsibility, which includes the important aspect of relationships with State agencies, particularly the HSE. There will now be a new reporting relationship between...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: National Disability Inclusion Strategy: Discussion (4 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank Senator Higgins. Regarding the optional protocol, once we have submitted the report to the UN committee, I hope to bring back a timetable in my first engagement in the new year with this committee. On legislation, we are looking at a disability (miscellaneous provisions) Bill and at bringing a memorandum to the Government early next year for approval to prepare heads of Bill. We...