My Department acknowledges the important role Enable Ireland and other section 39 organisations and, in particular, their workers play in our health and social care services. This work is essential in providing services to many families and vulnerable people in society. Voluntary service provider agencies provide the majority of services in partnership with and on behalf of the Health Service Executive. The HSE provides funding to more than 419 organisations through more than 1,045 service arrangements throughout t…

The Deputy has rightly summarised the significance of Enable Ireland. They are present in nearly every CHO area. They lead 20 of our community disability network teams in doing such important work with children. They are an example of the real importance the community and voluntary sector has in terms of the work that the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and I are doing on disability with section 39 organisations and also with the work Tusla does in meeting the needs of children with section 56 organisations. Th…

The issue of staff retention is so important, especially as there are significant numbers of vacancies on some of our community disability network teams and in other areas in the section 56 organisations. Pay differentials have a role in this regard. This is why it is important we act within the powers we have, again recognising that neither we as the Government nor the HSE are the direct employers of these staff. Nevertheless, we must take the steps that we can do. This gap has existed for more than a decade and t…

Foster carers play a vital role in the care of our most vulnerable children. The placement of a child in foster care is the preferred option for children who cannot live with their family of origin. It enables children in State care to live in a safe, secure, and stable home environment. The Deputy may be aware that approximately 90% of children in care are cared for by foster carers, which compares extremely favourably with many other jurisdictions. We welcome this and we want to sustain this. We are, however, awa…

I thank the Deputy. That issue of travel expenses has been highlighted with me. There is a paper going between ourselves and Tusla for a proposal to provide some relief there. He is correct about the pensions issue. I have discussed this directly with the Minister for Social Protection and we will come back to it, especially in respect of the significant reforms she is bringing through with the State pension. I am certainly articulating the need for a position for foster carers within that wider context of the care…

I want to promote the direct engagement by Tusla of foster carers. It is important we recognise Tusla's changed approach to this issue. It is in the process right now of appointing a national lead for foster care. I was surprised that was not in place but I know it is something Bernard Gloster wanted to implement and it is something Kate Duggan has implemented now. That gives a much clearer focus within the organisation, recognising that of the 5,000 or so children who are in care, 90% are in foster care. It is app…

The early childhood care and education, ECCE, programme is a universal two-year preschool programme. Children within the eligible age range can access this programme for three hours per day, five days per week. The delivery of the ECCE programme aligns with the school year and operates over 38 weeks per year from September to June. All hours of early learning and childcare accessed outside of the ECCE programme hours, either within term or out of term, can be subsidised by the national childcare scheme, NCS, for a …

The measures I have sought to introduce are to make provision for providers, make provision for childcare professionals and make provision for parents. It is important that all three are provided for in the measures the Government brings forward because, ultimately, looking after all those will ensure they can better look after our children. The Deputy is absolutely right about the pressure on capacity. When we introduced core funding, we saw a significant growth in capacity. Services responded to that. They added …

For the second year of core funding, which kicks in in September, I was delighted to be able to secure an additional €28 million. That is an 11% growth year on year to support providers, which is very significant. The Deputy is right. In this year's budget we have many goals we want to achieve. We want to keep core funding growing. We really want to cut fees for parents again. We recognise that despite the progress we made this year, fees are still too high so we want to grow the NCS. We want to bring childminders …

This is an issue the Deputy has brought to me regularly. It touches on what Deputy Dillon spoke about earlier regarding capacity. Some €69 million has been allocated between 2023 and 2025 to the early learning and childcare sectors under the revised national development plan. This will enable significant capital investment in early learning and childcare across three pillars. Pillar 1 is the improvement grant, pillar 2 is the capacity grant and pillar 3 is the innovation grant. The improvement grant was offered thi…

I thank the Deputy. Regarding the pillars I announced there, I think the Deputy is going to be particularly interested in pillar 2, which is a capacity grant. This will allow existing services to expand and build brand new services. I hope that later on in the summer, we will be in a position to make the announcement on how people can apply this year to draw down funds for the capacity grant in 2024, pillar 2 of the provision. There will be an allocation of capital money for 2024 and for 2025. I know the Deputy wil…

I acknowledge this is an area the Deputy knows particularly well. As I said, we have brought in these allocations under the NDP. They will be able to be drawn down next year and the following year. I would like it if the envelope were a bit bigger. We will always be pushing to grow the capital as well as the current side we spoke about earlier. We will continue to work to grow that. The figures are big, particularly when one designs purpose-built childcare facilities. We want that more and more, so that we are givi…

As Deputy Connolly knows, in February 2021, the Department published the White Paper to end direct provision and it contained three core themes: accommodation, integration and supports. Since the lifting of the Covid-19 restrictions, more than 15,000 people have come to Ireland seeking international protection, and at the same time more than 84,000 people have fled from Ukraine, the vast majority of whom have required accommodation from the State. In that context, there is a recognition that the underlying assumpti…

Deputy Connolly is right. The vulnerability assessments are an EU obligation. They were not being carried out for many years, and that is why I identified them as a priority. They are being carried out now. They are revealing significant vulnerabilities, and that allows us to better plan the services we provide. In terms of the update on the White Paper, I have reviewed a draft in recent days and I hope to bring it to the Cabinet before the Cabinet rises for the summer at the end of July. That is my hope and that i…

The money for the integration teams was secured by my Department in budget 2023, so it is available for this year. It is there. It has been given. There has been extensive negotiation with the Local Government Management Agency, LGMA, and the County and City Management Association, CCMA, on the provision of this. That money is there. The Deputy is correct about what direct provision was meant to be and that we have ended up with the system still in place 21 years later. Many people are working hard to support the c…

I am committed to tackling disadvantage through high-quality early learning and childcare that is affordable and accessible. In line with a commitment in First 5 and informed by recommendations in Partnership for the Public Good, officials in my Department are currently tailoring a policy response to progress the development of a new strand of funding, the equal participation model. Through this work, services will be provided with a proportionate mix of universal and targeted supports to support children and famil…

I would like to advance a significant number of issues in this year's budget. We have spoken about some of them already, such as cutting costs for all parents, bringing childminders into the scheme so that parents can benefit from the national childcare scheme, NCS, and extending AIM so that more children with a disability can access more hours in early learning and care. We have to see where the equal participation model is in its development. I would like to extend the meals in pre-school settings, but there are …

The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and I will adopt Deputy Funchion's mantra of asking early and often in all our engagements with the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform in the next-----

The Deputy is right about childminders. I am conscious that thousands of parents rely on childminders and were not able to get the benefit of the significant cuts we were able to bring in to the cost of childcare for parents using centre-based childcare. I am also conscious that some childminders are concerned about the process because it will involve a degree of regulation. That has to be the case. If a significant State subsidy is going to be given, there has to be a regulation. I have always said it will be appr…

I indicated during Committee Stage proceedings that I might bring an amendment on Report Stage with regard to data sharing by information sources. Amendment No. 51 creates a new section that will allow the chief deciding officer, where necessary and proportionate in respect of his or her functions under the Act, to access and process personal data and special categories of personal data held by information sources. Institutional records are of key importance to this scheme. Their importance cannot be overestimated.…