Results 17,941-17,960 of 20,459 for speaker:Frances Fitzgerald

Children in Care (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: The HSE compiles monthly performance reports which provide an overall analysis of key performance data from finance, HR, hospital and primary and community services. These reports include a range of statistics in regard to children in care. A new performance indicator was introduced in 2011 to collect information on the number of young adults aged 18 to 21 years in receipt of an aftercare...

Children in Care (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: I thank Deputy Ó Caoláin for his question. I agree with him on the need for young people to continue to receive help. The Deputy might perhaps be reassured by some of the following information. A review of numbers was carried out by an external consultant. The audit date for this data was March 2011. I am informed that in March 2011 a total of 1,051 young people nationally were in...

Children in Care (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: Resources are an issue. There are problems because of the demands of the services when it comes to the base funding available for child and family services within the HSE. The question of priority must be addressed and better management and better inter-agency work. Quite a number of areas need to be addressed to answer the Deputy's question about resources. Ten additional after-care...

Child Poverty (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: The UNICEF report card published in 2010 shows that in terms of material inequality, Ireland is close to the OECD average. Ireland is ranked 13th, with the best performing country identified as Switzerland. In terms of inequalities in education and health outcomes, Ireland is ranked in second and seventh place, respectively, to the best performing countries. I am very glad to note this...

Child Poverty (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: The provision for the various income support systems in 2012 will be a matter for consideration by the Minister for Social Protection and the Government in the budgetary process. I appreciate the Deputy's point about the role of child benefit payments and the support it offers to families, particularly the families who are most vulnerable and most marginalised. I will work with other...

Children in Care (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: In January 2010, HIQA published Guidance for the Health Service Executive for the Review of Serious Incidents including Deaths of Children in Care. The guidance became operational from March 2010. The guidance required the HSE to establish a panel of appropriately skilled professionals, both internal and external, to review cases under specified criteria. According to the HIQA guidance,...

Children in Care (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: The death of every child is a tragedy and I offer every sympathy to the families whose children were reported upon by this review panel. It is interesting to note in the review that no case of death or serious incident was related to an action or inaction of the HSE child protection services. That is a very important point coming from this review and worth noting. It is not surprising,...

Family Support Services (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: There are 107 family resource centres throughout the country funded by the Family Support Agency. My Department assumed responsibility for the FSA when it was established earlier this year. I welcome the opportunity this provides to promote effective operational relationships between the family resource centres and other providers of services to children and families. The aim of the family...

Family Support Services (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: The Deputy's question relates to the Family Support Agency and family resource centres. The overall allocation to the FSA was €31.7 million in 2011, of which €16 million was allocated to the resource centre programme. Substantial funding is given to local centres and I wish to support them in whatever way possible, given budgetary constraints. The Deputy knows our budgetary constraints...

Family Support Services (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: The Deputy has raised the complex question of the reasons children come into care. It happens for a variety of reasons. Physical abuse is one of the reasons. Increasingly, neglect is the reason most children come into care. The financial pressures on families can have an impact on such neglect. Drink and drug issues are a significant factor in children coming into care at present....

Out of Hours Services (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: The HSE provides out of hours emergency services for children who are at risk. The service is provided in the greater Dublin area through the crisis intervention service and outside the greater Dublin area through the emergency place of safety service. The crisis intervention service provides an out of hours emergency social work service to young people under the age of 18 who are in...

Out of Hours Services (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: This has been spoken about for a long time, as the Deputy knows. We have received some elementary information from the two pilot projects. We have the beginning of an assessment of how they are operating. I need to wait until I hear back from the HSE oversight group on the recommendations before I decide how quickly we can move to a national roll-out. Obviously, there will be resource...

Out of Hours Services (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: While I do not have detailed figures, I am advised that activity has not been significant to date. I accept the Deputy's point that we should not over-rely on the take-up to date as one would expect it to be low given that it will take some time for the relevant or appropriate information to file down to those who need it and for the Garda to become more aware of the service. The fact that...

Out of Hours Services (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: The reports outline the latest position and plans for the future. I would be pleased to correspond with both Deputies on the information available to me and plans for the future in counties Donegal and Cork.

Missing Children Hotline (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: I propose to take Questions Nos. 7 and 34 together. Under EU telecoms rules agreed in 2009, the 116000 number is reserved in all EU member states for a missing children hotline. In a debate on this issue in Seanad Éireann on 12 October last I gave a commitment to work with relevant Departments and agencies to establish the hotline in Ireland in 2012. I also announced my intention to...

Missing Children Hotline (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: I have done so already by establishing the project team. I want the missing children hotline to be progressed. I am pleased to note that the incidence of children who go missing in Ireland is low and has fallen significantly in recent years. Statistics provided by the Garda Síochána indicate there are five open cases of children who went missing in this country in 2010. While even one...

Missing Children Hotline (3 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: I understand we were waiting for the last person to be appointed to the project group and an appointment was made in recent days. The work will be short-term in nature. I do not envisage it will continue for a long period and expect the project team will pull the relevant information together and make a recommendation within a couple of months. It is then a question of examining costing...

Written Answers — Adoption Services: Adoption Services (2 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: Following talks with the HSE, the Sacred Heart Order and officials from my Department, the HSE agreed to take responsibility for the adoption files of the Sacred Heart Adoption Society located in Bessborough, Blackrock, Co. Cork. As this is an operational issue for which the HSE has responsibility, queries in relation to accessing these files should be directed to the HSE Regional Adoption...

Written Answers — Children in Care: Children in Care (2 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: As this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond directly to the Deputy with the most up-to-date information.

Written Answers — Health Service Staff: Health Service Staff (2 Nov 2011)

Frances Fitzgerald: The Implementation Plan published on foot of the Ryan Report committed to the recruitment of an additional 270 social workers. The first 200 of these posts were filled last year. The HSE National Service Plan includes financial provision of €3.8m for the recruitment of a further 60 social workers this year. I have been assured by the HSE that it plans to have the 60 additional staff in...