Results 1,521-1,540 of 3,444 for speaker:Shane Cassells

Written Answers — Department of Health: Respite Care Services Data (25 Jun 2019)

Shane Cassells: 327. To ask the Minister for Health the number of respite hours provided for adults with an intellectual disability in County Westmeath in each of the years 2008 to 2018, in tabular form. [26113/19]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Respite Care Services Data (25 Jun 2019)

Shane Cassells: 328. To ask the Minister for Health the number of respite hours provided for children with an intellectual disability in County Westmeath in each of the years 2008 to 2018, in tabular form. [26114/19]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Respite Care Services Data (25 Jun 2019)

Shane Cassells: 329. To ask the Minister for Health the number of respite hours provided for adolescents with an intellectual disability in County Westmeath in each of the years 2008 to 2018, in tabular form. [26115/19]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Disability Services Data (25 Jun 2019)

Shane Cassells: 330. To ask the Minister for Health the number of persons on the waiting list for residential care for adults with an intellectual disability in County Westmeath in each of the years 2008 to 2018, in tabular form. [26116/19]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Disability Services Data (25 Jun 2019)

Shane Cassells: 331. To ask the Minister for Health the number of adults with intellectual disabilities in residential care in County Westmeath in tabular form. [26117/19]

Committee on Public Petitions: Mandatory Teacher Training on Spectrum Disorders: Discussion (19 Jun 2019)

Shane Cassells: I welcome our guests. I am delighted to participate in this discussion with the stakeholders. Parents approach Deputies and Senators on a weekly basis to look for supports for their children. It is commonplace and is becoming more commonplace. I welcome this discussion. I have two questions. What is Mr. Mulkerrins's assessment of what we have heard from Mr. Harris? Where can common...

Committee on Public Petitions: Mandatory Teacher Training on Spectrum Disorders: Discussion (19 Jun 2019)

Shane Cassells: In the context of what Mr. Harris said in terms of children being illegally placed on reduced hours and sent home, in the past two months I was made aware of two cases arising in two separate schools located close to each other in a rural area of County Meath. Where schools send children home on the basis that they cannot cope and where their parents are told to collect them, what is the...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Naturalisation Applications (18 Jun 2019)

Shane Cassells: 225. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if efforts are being made to ease the high costs faced by UK citizens who have lived and worked here for decades when they are applying for Irish citizenship which they need in order to apply for an Irish passport; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25011/19]

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Teagasc Administration (18 Jun 2019)

Shane Cassells: 511. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of times each Teagasc regional advisory council has met in each year from 2012 to 2018, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24996/19]

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (13 Jun 2019)

Shane Cassells: I thank the Accounting Officer. I welcome him and his team. As attested by the opening statement, the Department has a huge scope, with many areas that could be examined. I will keep my focus tight this morning. Primarily, I wish to focus on the fact that the Department of Children and Youth Affairs advances a huge amount of money to an organisation called Pobal to administer its early...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (13 Jun 2019)

Shane Cassells: I asked specifically what has been lost to the Exchequer. I will come back to what Dr. Lynch has said. I appreciate his answer. Pobal has been asleep at the wheel. Dr. Lynch referred to what was done in previous years. Many different types of checks were going on. There were checks on headcounts, audits and checks on childcare. Meanwhile there were different checks on social economy...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (13 Jun 2019)

Shane Cassells: I know that but what is annoying some people in the community sector is that they are being penalised because of the practices that were allowed to happen. Its members are being penalised for €10,000 on average and they cannot afford it. If the practices had not been allowed to develop over that period, they would not be hit in this way. Has the Department penalised Pobal in any way...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (13 Jun 2019)

Shane Cassells: The surpluses and underspends in the Department stun me greatly as this is a massively underfunded sector. The average cost to parents in a commuter county such as my own are €1,000 per month, which is the cost of a mortgage. A surplus of €48 million was surrendered in 2016 and it was €59 million in 2017. This sector has been on the front pages of the newspapers...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (13 Jun 2019)

Shane Cassells: How does Dr. Lynch link that to the underspends?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (13 Jun 2019)

Shane Cassells: Provision had been made for some 15,500 enrolments in April.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (13 Jun 2019)

Shane Cassells: Only 8,400 took their places. The Irish Independent, on its front page on 20 May, referred to a new crisis in childcare because crèches are turning babies away. There is a severe shortage of crèche places for babies and toddlers because of the success of the free preschool programme for three to five year olds but Teresa Heaney, the chief executive of Early Childhood Ireland,...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (13 Jun 2019)

Shane Cassells: I have asked questions of the Minister in the Dáil about the exceptionally low pay of people within the sector, who are on €11.93 per hour which is 3 cent above the living wage. There have been numerous protests outside the doors of the Dáil by the many thousands of people who work in the early years sector. The stock answer is that the childcare providers are private...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (13 Jun 2019)

Shane Cassells: Does Dr. Lynch take my point that he was asking these sectors to implement State programmes across the board?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (13 Jun 2019)

Shane Cassells: The sector is facing substantial challenges with the changes to ratios too, which will have an impact on the requirement for the recruitment of additional staff, which increases the cost to the provider, which will eventually be passed on to the parents. This is all part of the knock-on effect of that. When we had the Department of Health here, I asked about a matter, and I want to ask the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children and Youth Affairs (13 Jun 2019)

Shane Cassells: That is fine. I want to address the Miesian Plaza matter. There are a myriad things that are balanced on a fine line. It is not one matter in isolation. Another issue is that providers are subjected to rates. I have consistently argued with the Minister about that. It is about trying to bring down the cost base for many providers, because their margins are so tight, which Dr. Lynch...