As the Deputy said, we secured an additional €183 million of funding in budget 2022, bringing my Department's overall budget to €2.1 billion. The increase will be targeted at improving outcomes for children, young people and their families, as well as promoting equality and human rights. I am allocating an extra €78 million for the early learning and school-age childcare sector, €41 million additional funding for Tusla and an extra €41 million for international protection and the work to end direct provision, in ad…

In terms of the actions on gender, some of that money will go towards the creation of the website and the reporting system for the gender pay gap which, as the Deputy knows, we passed legislation on earlier this year. On the international protection funding of approximately €41 million, a significant part of that is to contribute towards the expected increased numbers of people arriving in the country seeking international protection as international travel increases, and we are seeing that. It is to increase our c…

A key part of that will go towards anti-racism. We expect the anti-racism strategy to be provided early next year. There is an allocation there to support the roll-out of the national action plan against racism.

Absolutely. The national Traveller and Roma education strategy is something I feel passionate about. It does fall within the remit of my Department because early years is a key issue. We know in terms of accessing the early childhood care and education scheme, ECCE, the access rate of the Traveller community is 10% less than that of the settled community. The educational disadvantage is already being ingrained there. Funding will deal with that. Part of the allocated extra money is to ensure that the Traveller pilo…

I know of the Deputy’s interest in the issue of memorialisation and the work she has done locally in Carlow on this. The establishment of a national memorial and records centre is a core commitment within the plan and provides a basis for several other interdependent projects. The national centre will stand as a national memorial in honour of those who were resident in mother and baby homes, county institutions, industrial schools, Magdalen laundries and other related institutions. It will make a significant contri…

I thank the Deputy. I agree with her. The national records and memorial centre will be really important. It will be important for survivors as it will be a physical manifestation of a recognition of what happened to them and, as the Deputy stated, it will provide a place for their stories and personal accounts to be told. It is important for society as well in terms of educating people about what happened in these institutions. It is also important from a historical perspective in terms of ensuring there is a singl…

I agree with the Deputy on that point of communication. My Department is endeavouring to ensure we communicate effectively on this issue. We send out a quarterly bulletin to approximately 500 survivors who are on a mailing list. We engage with them by way of the quarterly update, but also letting them know when major announcements are being made, such as in respect of the recently announced institutional payments and updates on other legislative provisions. That communication is there. If there are survivors in the…

Sporting activity has an important role to play in the development of young people and addressing many of their needs. The programmes offered by various Departments can collectively offer that kind of holistic response to the needs of young people. The infrastructure of youth services across the country that are funded by my Department includes the 30 national youth organisations, a significant number of local clubs and the youth function of the education and training boards. It works closely with agencies and loca…

Speaking as one who was not hugely involved in sport as a young person, what my Department seeks to offer is alternatives for young people who are not as interested in team sports in particular as some other young people, but who want to have that element of social development that, for many young people, is filled by sports. It is really important for us to get that balance to encourage young people to do what they want and to support them. I think all present agree that trying to leverage young people into anythi…

The approach that is being adopted in the village the Deputy is talking about is a really interesting one and could have genuine benefits. We are aware that the difficulty in securing capital for community buildings is a major issue for so many community organisations, be they sports clubs, youth services or more general kinds of groups. I would certainly be happy to talk to the Department responsible for sport about what could be done to make it easier for the two areas to come together. In my local authority area…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 12, 44, 74, 77 and 82 together. Earlier this year, I published a White Paper to end direct provision and establish a new international protection support service. Since then, my Department has taken a series of steps to implement these reforms, with a view to completing them by the end of 2024. A staff team has been established in my Department to lead the transition to the new model. Ending direct provision and putting in place the new system, with its focus on human rights, not-fo…

On regularisation, I am meeting the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, and the Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Deputy James Browne, after oral questions to launch the regularisation scheme. I am very excited about that. It is an important development, for which my party pushed very strongly in negotiating the programme for Government. The Minister and Minister of State in the Department of Justice have shown great leadership in this area. It will be a life-changing experience for undocumented mig…

I acknowledge the point made there by Deputy Carroll MacNeill and the Minister, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, will be very happy if someone does not want HAP, if they can provide for themselves. We have always made provision where some people here are seeking international protection but do not enter direct provision because they are in a situation where they can provide for themselves. There is flexibility, yes, but there is a key issue about people being treated similarly to Irish nationals also, and that there is no d…

I thank the Deputy. The National Action Plan for Childminding 2021-2028 which I published in April, sets out a phased, incremental approach to extending supports and regulation to all non-relative childminders. It aims to improve access to high quality and affordable early learning and care and school-age childcare through childminding. During phase 1 of the plan, which began recently and is expected to last two to three years, childminding-specific regulations will be developed that are proportionate and appropria…

I thank the Deputy. As she knows I have met with colleagues from her party on that comprehensive policy work that her party undertook. The issue of flexibility is of great importance and childminding is a very significantly flexible element of the early years sector. There is a very large number of people working in childminding. The parents who use those services cannot, for the most part, avail of the NCS, because the childminders are not registered with Tusla. We are beginning this process to bring a greater deg…

I am aware that work is ongoing in the area of flexible working. Some of that is through my Department and some is through the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. I believe that a monitoring element would be really useful in the context of getting the take-up. We have seen a huge increase in the take-up of parental leave by both parents. Whereas originally and pre-pandemic it was primarily just mothers, now we are seeing a lot of fathers taking that leave, which is positive. On childminding and the regu…

It is important for service providers to have flexibility in staffing arrangements and in how they structure their organisations. I also believe that a career structure will be necessary to support the further professionalisation of the sector and to make careers in the sector more attractive. Establishing clear and supported career pathways is important in improving the recruitment and retention of staff and in enhancing practitioners' continued professional development, both of which better support outcomes for c…

The Deputy is absolutely right. Just like him, I too have met constituents and young people, primarily young women, who have done the four years of a level 7 or level 8 course, and who then decided not to go into the sector because they did not see that career pathway for them. As the Deputy noted, the issues are primarily pay and conditions. Childcare professionals are not paid enough and the conditions are not adequate. This is why we have such staff turnover. The Deputy asked about research on this. In 2020, the…

It is my understanding that childcare professionals will be able to avail of the sick pay scheme on which the Tánaiste is working at the moment. I can certainly touch base with him on that. My Department has been in constant touch with the Tánaiste because we are aware that the lack of sick pay, particularly in light of the current crisis, has been a major issue for the sector. I am happy to touch base further, but that is certainly the assumption we have been working on. While pay is absolutely important, conditio…

My Department works very closely with young people and representatives of organisations serving young people to make decisions around the prioritisation of available Exchequer funding. Their input in recent years has greatly informed budgetary decisions. For the past number of years, the annual capital budget available to youth services has been approximately €3 million. Decisions on the allocation of these funds are made based on an assessment of need at a given time and the consultations I have referenced. The fu…