Results 161-180 of 11,327 for speaker:Roderic O'Gorman

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (24 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I firmly believe the level of pay for early years educators and school-age childcare practitioners should reflect the value of their work for children, families, society and the economy. I acknowledge that those working in the Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School-Age Childcare (SAC) sector do not receive the recognition they deserve. The role of the early years educator and...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (24 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: Improving access to quality and affordable early learning and childcare is a key priority of Government. Capital funding has been allocated to the early learning and childcare sector under the revised National Development Plan (NDP). This will enable significant investment in early learning and childcare. Some €89 million has been allocated to my Department between 2023 and 2026. ...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Projects (24 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: The National Centre for Research and Remembrance will comprise a museum and exhibition space, a research centre and repository of records related to institutional trauma in the 20th century, a place for reflection and remembrance, social housing, further and higher educational facilities, and community-based family and parenting support facilities. The development of the National Centre...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Youth Services (24 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: Arising from Budget 2025, €84.9m will be allocated for current and capital expenditure for the benefit of young people, an increase in funding of €7 million, or almost 9%, on the 2024 budget. Over the period from 2021 to 2025, the level of current Exchequer funding for youth services and programmes will have increased by over 34%. The additional funding secured in Budget...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: School Meals Programme (24 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: All early learning and care services are required, by legislation, to provide some level of snacks and meals depending on the length of time a child attends. My Department secured €3.2m in funding in Budget 2025 for a targeted meals programme as part of Equal Start, our new funding model to support children and their families who experience disadvantage to access and experience...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Children in Care (24 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: As this relates to data collated by Tusla, the question has been forwarded to Tusla for direct reply to the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (24 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: My Department is progressing a range of actions to ensure the supply of early learning and childcare meets demand, with work in this area led by a Supply Management Unit that I established earlier this year. A key part of the Supply Management Unit’s remit is to develop a better understanding of the nature of supply and how it relates to demand and to develop policy to support the...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Ukraine War (24 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: Since the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine in February 2022, my Department continues to work as part of the whole-of-Government response with a focus on providing access to emergency temporary accommodation to those fleeing the conflict who request it, in line with Government policy. This supports Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection (BOTPs) to make longer term independent arrangements if...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (24 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I acknowledge that those working in the Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School-Age Childcare (SAC) sector do not receive the recognition they deserve. The roles of the early years educator and school-age childcare practitioner are valuable ones and they play an important part in supporting children's development, learning and care. In line with commitments in First 5, in December 2021, I...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Emergency Accommodation (24 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I propose to take Questions Nos. 288 and 289 together. Initial contact of offers of properties to be used for accommodation for people seeking International Protection (IP) are received by the International Protection Procurement Service (IPPS) primarily through its e-mail portal. Once an offer is received, IPPS sends a proposal template to the prospective provider that they are...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (24 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: There are two types of subsidies available under the National Childcare Scheme: Universal Subsidies are available to all families with children under 15 years old. This subsidy is not means tested and provides €2.14 per hour towards the cost of a registered childcare place for a maximum of 45 hours per week. Income Assessed Subsidies are available to families with children aged...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Childcare Services (24 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: Due to the complexity of the above scenario and its divergence from current resource modelling, this will require some time to gather data, construct a model and respond. Officials will revert to the Deputy directly as soon as possible.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: School Staff (24 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I firmly believe the level of pay for early years educators and school-age childcare practitioners should reflect the value of their work for children, families, society and the economy. The State is not the employer and therefore does not set the pay or conditions for employees in either early learning and care (ELC) or school-age childcare (SAC) services. However, there is now, through the...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Budgets (24 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: I propose to take Questions Nos. 295, 302 and 303 together. As the State does not employ staff in ELC and SAC services, neither I nor the Department can set wage levels or determine working conditions for staff in the sector. However, there is now, through the independent Joint Labour Committee (JLC) process, a formal mechanism established by which employer and employee representatives can...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Budgets (24 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: My officials have prepared an estimated cost of funding for public early childhood education and care services under the following assumptions: Assuming each service will deliver 60 places, 17 services will provide 1,020 places and 108 services will provide 6,480 places. These services will be staffed as per regulatory ratios, with provision for salaries at hourly rates stipulated by the...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Budgets (24 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Deputy has requested the full year cost of extending the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Programme by 30 minutes per day and 1 hour per day. The ECCE Programme is currently provided for 3 hours per day across 38 weeks per year. In calculating the cost of these changes the total budget allocation for the ECCE programme for 2025 (€269.25 million) was used. The...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Budgets (24 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: Due to the complexity of the above scenario and its divergence from current resource modelling, this will require some time to gather data, construct a model and respond. Officials will revert to the Deputy directly as soon as possible.

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (24 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Deputy has requested the cost of increasing the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) Universal Subsidy so that a family pays no more than €200 per child for the maximum hours which is 45 hours per week. It is assumed that Deputy is referring to a monthly cost of no more than €200 per child. Due to the design of the NCS and its consideration for education stage rather than age,...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (24 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: In 2023, my Department delivered the 'Little Baby Bundle' pilot to 500 expectant families. These bundles provided approximately €500 worth of key items for parents and newborn children, for a per unit cost of only €220. A universal roll-out based on the pilot to every newborn child would have an initial full year running cost of €12.8m, based on 58,000 expectant...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Early Childhood Care and Education (24 Oct 2024)

Roderic O'Gorman: The State is not the employer and therefore does not have an official register of staff working in the Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare sector. However, Pobal carry out the Annual Early Years Sector Profile Survey on behalf of my Department. This comprehensive survey of all Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School-Age Childcare (SAC) settings in the country is the primary...