Results 1,301-1,320 of 11,687 for speaker:Roderic O'Gorman

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals: Discussion (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I might start with that. In the run-up to the referendum, I announced an interdepartmental group meeting to bring all the relevant Departments together to see what barriers exist and how we can address them. My understanding is that has met twice so far. It will bring its report back to Cabinet for one of our July meetings. Prior to the referendum campaign, I commissioned legal advice...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals: Discussion (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the Deputy for her contribution. This is an issue she has championed over the past number of years. I remember when I started in this role four years ago, we would have said the challenges were that parents are paying too much, staff are not paid enough and providers are not making a significant income from their work. Those were the big three challenges and we have done a huge...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals: Discussion (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I will come back to the paperwork in a moment. In terms of more money, core funding is delivering very significantly from September of this year. Probably next week we will be announcing the allocations for core funding in year 3. I will not say we will get rid of the fee freeze, because it is so important. I am aware there are a couple of services whose fees were last set in the...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals: Discussion (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: There is much administration there. Earlier this year, I announced an overview of the administrative burden, and that is taking place. We are having an action plan to set out where there is duplication, where there is administration burden and where we can remove that. We have been able to do a few already, even in terms of this year’s contracts. There used to be different sets of...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals: Discussion (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: Before I was here, I was meeting with Childminding Ireland to talk to it about the childminding regulation, which some childminders have been concerned about.

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals: Discussion (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: We had a good, useful discussion. I meet with the entire sector in the Early Years Forum. That has representatives of the big chains, the mediums-size groups, the small-size groups, parents and educators. It is an effective location. I meet with it three or four times a year. I also regularly meet with many of the individual organisations, both formally and informally, when I am at...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals: Discussion (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: We are always trying to communicate and provide information about what we are doing. There absolutely continues to be challenges in early years. The Deputy will recall that just before the last general election when we were all elected, there was a massive march of childcare professionals, providers and parents all very angry about the three issues I outlined at the start. We have made...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals: Discussion (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: We hope to get this done before the end of the summer. A lot of work has been done on it, so we are hoping to get it published in July or August. Youth work is very much a focus for us. I have been able to significantly increase the budget, though when I met with national youth organisations yesterday they set a high bar for budget 2025. The Leas-Chathaoirleach is right in terms of its...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals: Discussion (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach.

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals: Discussion (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: This was something the sector asked me to prioritise because it saw it could reach a set of young people the social welfare office was far away from and with which there was no connection. On gender pay gap information, the goal is to have the database as a website where people can put in the name of a company and look at its database. I am told that is a relatively complicated website....

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Maternity Leave (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Maternity Protection Act 1994 and the Maternity Protection (Amendment) Act 2004 provide a pregnant employee with six months of paid maternity leave and an additional 16 weeks of unpaid leave. All forms of family leave are kept under review to ensure that they are effective in supporting families and children.At the end of last year I announced plans to introduce legislation to allow women...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Residential Institutions (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: In March 2022, Government approved high-level proposals for a National Centre for Research and Remembrance, to be located on the site of the former Magdalen Laundry on Sean McDermott Street in Dublin 1.This Centre will stand as a site of conscience to honour equally all those who spent time in Industrial Schools, Magdalen Laundries, Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions, Reformatories,...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: International Protection (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: There are currently over 31,000 people accommodated in the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) system as a whole (of whom over 7,833 are children) compared with approximately 8,700 people at the end of February 2022. Weekly and Monthly statistics are available publicly on the gov.ie at the links below: . Please see, in tabular format, the number of persons with...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Mother and Baby Homes (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: While I try to be helpful at all times in the parliamentary process, the Deputy will be aware that I cannot be involved in individual cases and cannot comment on same. That said, I will try to be helpful in general terms. The Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme is designed to provide payments and other benefits to people who spent time in any Mother and Baby or County Home...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: International Protection (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I can inform the Deputy that my Department has no role in determining access to homeless services for Ukrainian beneficiaries of temporary protection or for any other group. The Deputy might wish to address this question to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage who has policy responsibility for homeless services. My Department provides access to State supported accommodation...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I acknowledge that many early learning and care (ELC) and school-age childcare (SAC) services report staffing challenges in relation to recruitment and retention. In general, staffing pressures in the sector are caused not by insufficient supply of qualified personnel, but by high levels of staff turnover. Pay levels are one of a number of issues impacting staffing levels.Providers of ELC and...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Child Protection (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: Statutory and operational responsibility for the delivery of child protection and welfare services is a matter for Tusla, the Child and Family Agency. The Deputy is seeking information in relation to an operational matter for Tusla. Consequently, I have referred the matter to Tusla, and requested that a direct response be provided to the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Child Protection (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: Statutory and operational responsibility for the delivery of child protection and welfare services is a matter for Tusla, the Child and Family Agency. The Deputy is seeking information in relation to an operational matter for Tusla. Consequently, I have referred the matter to Tusla, and requested that a direct response be provided to the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Child and Family Agency (25 Jun 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: Statutory and operational responsibility for the delivery of child protection and welfare services is a matter for Tusla, the Child and Family Agency. The Deputy is seeking information in relation to an operational matter for Tusla. Consequently, I have referred the matter to Tusla, and requested that a direct response be provided to the Deputy.