The Senator knows at this stage that I am always happy to engage. I cannot make any commitment in terms of outcome but I am certainly happy to engage. It is an important matter. As the Senator recognised, it is something on which I have engaged already. He is right that this was not with any great success. However, I am happy to engage further with him and others.

I am not in a position to support this amendment. As the Senator will be aware, the purpose of the Bill is to provide for the establishment of the payment scheme, the making of payments, and the provision of health benefits under the scheme. As stated in response to previous amendments, the Bill provides for reports to be made, but these are appropriately related to the performance of the functions under the Act and the operation of the scheme. There are a number of points in the amendment that would be exceptional…

More than 4,200 partner services currently participate in core funding, which represents 95% of all services in the State. These services must operate in line with the core funding partner service funding agreement. With regard to fees, partner services must uphold their contractual obligations with regard to fee management, as laid out in this agreement. In the first year - we are still in that first year - partner services must not increase the fees charged to parents from those charged in September 2021. An incr…

If the Deputy does not mind, I will not get too involved in the specific instance she has raised, because I do not know if it is in a fee-review process through Pobal. It may well be and may be one of the cases. I do not know. However, there are processes whereby parents can flag issues and there are significant consequences for the service, such as the withdrawal of the funding agreement, which is very significant. In many cases, it would be worth thousands, if not tens of thousands, of euro to the service. A brea…

The Deputy is absolutely right to praise childcare professionals. I was delighted to secure, for the first time, a pay agreement for them in September 2022 where 73% of childcare professionals saw a salary increase. The issue here is that our State has historically not invested in this sector. When I entered office, investment in childcare was €638 million per year. This year, it will be more than €1 billion for the first time. That €1 billion figure was reached five years earlier than previous policy commitments h…

Ensuring high-quality early learning and childcare is accessible and affordable is a key priority for me and there are a number of funding programmes available through my Department that seek to improve capacity. The new core funding scheme, which we were just discussing, has a range of objectives, including capacity growth. Although this scheme has only been in place since last September, analysis shows that there has already been a significant growth in capacity, with capacity growth for cohorts where we were par…

There is a very strong uptake of core funding in counties Cavan and Monaghan. It is 98% in services in Monaghan and 97% in Cavan, which are among the best rates in the country. There are definitely capacity constraints in both of those counties but we do have vacancies in both. I think it is about an 8% vacancy rate in Monaghan and a 12% vacancy rate in Cavan. However, in particular areas like toddler rooms and baby rooms, there are pressures. When we designed core funding, we did it in such a way as to reward thos…

The Deputy is right in saying we need increased capacity. The building blocks grant will be very important. In July we hope to put out a call for applications for services to be able to apply for extensions or financial support to build new services with a view that that would be called down in 2024. There is real pressure on staff within the childcare system at the moment. One of the best ways we can reduce that is to address the issue of pay. That is why it was so important that we got the employment regulation o…

In the first instance, I condemn any actions designed to intimidate vulnerable international protection applicants, including children, who have fled war and persecution. These actions cause fear and distress for the applicants, but as some of these protests take place outside centres, they result in the intimidation of staff as well. I also condemn the attempts to stigmatise and demonise men who seek international protection. We have to recognise that men are victims of war and state persecution and repression as …

In recent weeks and, indeed, recent days, we have opened a number of new international protection locations across the country, some of which were opened during protests. I recognise the support. We work on the advice of An Garda Síochána. The safety of international protection applicants we are moving to a new site is our priority, and we will take the operational advice of An Garda Síochána in terms of how such moves take place. We have received significant support in terms of operations on a day-to-day basis. Th…

I disagree with the Deputy slightly. I recognise that, regarding the hundreds of locations for accommodation opened in the country in the past 13 months, there have been instances where my Department and Government could have done better in terms of communication. However, the Deputy must also recognise that a huge amount of work has been done. My Department has provided notification briefings for 76 accommodation openings across the country. I, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage and our politi…

I thank Deputy Brady. Since the beginning of January 2022, more than 145 emergency accommodation locations have been brought into use throughout the country. All offers of accommodation have been considered. The Department is availing of hotels, guesthouses, repurposed office buildings, decommissioned Defence Force barracks and tents to try to address the shortfall it currently faces where demand for accommodation outstrips supply. The State has stepped up actions to maximise the pace and scale of delivery on the a…

It is important that we do not mix up accommodation for Ukrainians with accommodation for international protection applicants in the context of our understanding of the crisis. We are able to provide accommodation for beneficiaries of the temporary protection directive. We are accommodating more than 64,000 beneficiaries of temporary protection. We accommodating a further 21,000 international protection applicants. That is 84,000 people. This is a large number who have been accommodated in a 13-month period. Undoub…

When we are accommodating 84,000 people, I do not believe that is an indication of failure. It is an indication of a Government and country stepping up to meet the needs of an exceptional humanitarian crisis. Modular accommodation is a brand-new form of housing. We did not have it before that announcement. No one had ever seen such a unit and none had even been built. We designed it in conjunction with the OPW, which led on the design and the manufacture. In the middle of next month, we will see the first 64 units …

In respect of grants to youth services, I am not aware of any delays in funding managed by my Department. These grants are distributed in advance to funding intermediaries, in particular the education and training boards and Pobal. I understand that payments are currently on target for the year to date. If the Deputy has specific instances where that is not the case, I would appreciate it if he would draw them to my attention. In budget 2023, I ensured that there was a 4% increase in funding provided to services on…

With respect, the budget has not stayed stagnant for many years. When I started it was €61 million and I have raised it to €73 million, which is an 18% increase across that period. That said, we always want to do more and the youth sector is so important in terms of what it provides in the form of both targeted and universal services. As we know, the community and voluntary sector is under pressure right now, particularly as we have full employment now and are seeing the attractiveness of significant salaries acros…

I met members of the group in question with Deputy Murnane O'Connor and they gave an extremely impressive presentation. As the Deputy knows, I provide €128,000 to the group in terms of current spending through Tusla. We will continue to engage with that particular organisation. In response to Deputy Brady, I absolutely agree that we need to continue to grow the youth budget because it provides incredibly good value for money. It has grown very significantly over the last number of years. I want to do more and will …

I propose to take Questions Nos. 42 and 47 together. I have seen the report referred to by Deputy Smith which highlights the difficulties currently being faced by children and families. There must be a cross-government response to this. My Department has recognised child poverty as a significant issue to be given a focus in the next national policy framework for children and young people 2023-28. This framework is expected to be published in the coming months. While many children and young people are doing well, we…

As I said, this is an all-of-government approach. I focused in my reply on the things I am doing within my Department. I make no apologies for having a long-term strategy as to how to tackle these issues. The work we are doing now in respect of the NCS, core funding, the expansion of AIM - all those really good programmes - came about after a little long-term thought. I am very proud that we are now looking to bring forward a new strand, that being the equal participation model. I can speak to what is happening acr…

The fact that the Government has now created a unit dedicated to tackling child poverty for the first time ever in the history of the State is very clear evidence of the fact that the Government is committed to addressing the needs of these children and families and doing so in a way that is not once-off but systemic and looks to tackle the causes of child poverty at its roots, be they issues to do with income support, access to education and early learning or family homelessness, which we know is a major predictor…