Vol. 1045 No. 1
32. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth how the extra €7 million allocated in budget 2024 to the access and inclusion model, AIM, programme will be delivered; to provide further clarity on the number of extra hours eligible children will receive; what ages the scheme is being extended to; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48401/23]
My question regards the announcement that was made in the budget a couple of weeks ago about the AIM programme and the additional provisions. I think an extra €7 million has been allocated to the AIM programme. I would like some more information on exactly how that will be allocated. Is the plan to extend it past the early childhood care and education, ECCE hours, or what exactly is the plan for it?
I thank the Deputy. The award-winning access and inclusion model, AIM, has supported more than 27,000 children with a disability to access and meaningfully participate in the ECCE programme since it was first introduced in September 2016. A commitment to expand AIM beyond the ECCE programme was first made in the First 5 strategy. The fulfilment of this commitment was to be informed by an independent evaluation of AIM. That evaluation is now complete and it will be published before the end of this year.
Participants in that evaluation - parents, educators and providers - unanimously supported an extension of targeted AIM supports to hours outside the ECCE programme. Earlier this year, I set out an ambition to start this expansion of AIM, and in budget 2024, I was very pleased to secure an additional €14 million for AIM. Some €7 million of this allocation will support the increasing cohort of children with a disability requiring AIM supports to access and meaningfully participate in the ECCE programme. An additional €7 million provides for an expansion of targeted AIM supports to these children beyond time spent in the ECCE programme, in term and out of term, from next September. The full-year cost of this development will be €21 million.
The specific rules underpinning this extension are currently being developed. However, the intent of the additional funding is to support ECCE-enrolled children with a disability to remain in services for the full day if they wish to do so. The precise allocation model for this expansion of AIM is under design, and that will be communicated in early 2024.
It is my ambition that, over time, all children with a disability enrolled in early learning and childcare services will have access to supports under AIM. To this end, my officials will next consider how younger children with a disability not yet eligible for the ECCE programme can also be supported through AIM.
I thank the Minister. The AIM report he referenced came up today in a committee meeting we had with regard to early years. Does the Minister expect that AIM report to be published before the end of this year?
If I am picking the Minister up correctly, it is envisaged that for children who are currently eligible for ECCE, the idea of the expansion initially is that if they wish to take up a day care place, they will also have AIM attached to it. That sounds great, but children up to the age of three are left totally out of that section. I also wonder about the cost. A lot of parents would love to be able to avail of the full day care. Has any work been done with regard to the cost and the capacity, or does the Minister expect that will be part of the report?
I thank the Deputy. I caught a small amount of the hearings on TV earlier on today. Yes, we do hope to publish the report by the end of this year.
As the Deputy knows, AIM right now supports access to three hours per day or 15 hours per week for 38 weeks of the year. Our aim at the start is to enhance that to allow up to a full day, and move it beyond the 38 weeks of the ECCE year to the full-year provision. Then we will look to broaden that out to bring in children up to three years old, and we would hope in the future to even look at school-age childcare. AIM is an expensive scheme because it is really good and it works well. I have always said there would be an incremental expansion of AIM, but we have the money from September 2024 to begin that. The beginning is to extend from three hours per day to a full day, and extend beyond 38 weeks per year to 52 weeks per year.
I welcome that. AIM is an excellent programme and it is a huge benefit to children, particularly in the ECCE years. I know it is very frustrating for parents of children who are younger than that but it is welcome.
I want to ask about some of the other issues that came up today, and I know we have a committee session on this next week. There was definitely clear frustration, with people feeling they had engaged in a consultation process, and I am talking about the providers and the workers, with one particular situation having been referenced, where they had a new set of accounts, and I am only using that as an example, but the people said they went to consultations, they were very honest and gave their feedback, and yet, after all the consultations, they got a letter saying this situation is going ahead. Will there be consultation with the sector with regard to the expansion of AIM? It is welcome, it definitely needs to happen and it is a good thing it is happening, but there needs to be consultation with those who work in the sector and provide the service.
I agree with the Deputy in that this is a really positive move in terms of expanding access to AIM. It is something I and the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, would have spoken about as a way to support children with a disability. As the Deputy knows, we are also bringing in the brand new equal participation model, and I think that will be seen in a number of years as being as significant as AIM in supporting children with socioeconomic disadvantage, as opposed to a disability.
We engage extremely regularly with the sector through the early years forum, where there are provider, employer, educator and parents groups all represented together. On the issue of financial reporting, which ties into what the Deputy was talking about, we are very aware there is an administrative burden there. I accept that, and it has increased. That is why, about a month ago, I announced we were doing an end-to-end review of the administrative burden on early years providers. I have allocated staff in my Department to lead that. We have done a call for engagement by representative groups from services so they can feed in their actual experience. I hope to be able to bring an action plan responding to the administrative burden, probably in quarter 2 of next year, and to start implementing that.
33. Deputy John Brady asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth what progress has been made by his Department on the eight areas of responsibility his Department has undertaken in respect of the 27 actions which are to be delivered upon in the national youth homelessness strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48544/23]
I ask the Minister for a progress update on areas of responsibility for his Department under the national youth homelessness strategy that was launched last year. I would like a progress report on the eight areas for which his Department has responsibility.
The youth homelessness strategy steering group was established in January of this year under the auspices of the national homeless action committee of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Its purpose is to drive the delivery of all the actions set out in the national youth homelessness strategy and monitor progress.
My Department is represented on this group, which meets on a quarterly basis. The next meeting is scheduled for 22 November. The Department is also represented on the national homeless action committee, which is chaired by the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien.
The focus of the Housing for All: Youth Homelessness Strategy 2023-2025 is to help 18 to 24-year-olds who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. The three main aims are to prevent young people from entering homelessness, improve experiences of young people accessing emergency accommodation and assist young people as they leave homelessness.
As the Deputy said, my Department has eight areas of responsibility under the youth homelessness strategy, including support for those leaving State care, enhanced early intervention services for children and families and improving supports for young parents. Of the eight actions, work is advancing on four and one is complete, which is the publication of the strategic plan for aftercare. The four on which work are advancing are developing an information campaign for young people on their housing rights, an examination of improvements to family supports, a review of parenting support services for young parents and offering LGBTI+ homelessness training for homeless services. Work on a further three actions, the final three, will begin in Q1 of next year.
In terms of the action that has been completed, my Department is working with Tusla, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and local government. As the Deputy knows, Tusla has finalised its Strategic Plan for Aftercare Services for Young People and Young Adults 2023- 2026. This aligns with the youth homelessness strategy and also includes an appropriate continuum of accommodation for young people who are care experienced.
As the Minister is well aware, the plan was launched on 9 November last year, so we are quickly approaching the first anniversary of its publication in two days' time. Essentially, we are in the month of November. The strategy kicked in in January, so we are nearly one year through a three-year strategy. I ask the Minister to honestly give his assessment as to whether the strategy is working. The statistics do not lie. If we look at the youth homeless statistics from September, they show there are 1,510 homeless young people between the ages of 18 and 24. Over the course of the last year, that figure has actually increased by 20%. We are one third of the way through a three-year strategy and youth homeless figures have gone up one fifth by 20%. I will ask a genuine question as to whether the Minister sees this strategy as actually working. Is it having the positive impact it should or is there a broader issue in terms of the failure to get to grips with the housing crisis overall?
In terms of the elements our Department is responsible for, we identified, and this is identified in the youth homelessness strategy itself, that young people leaving care are some of the most vulnerable to falling into homelessness. That is why through my Department, working with Tusla, we prioritised the aftercare strategy for Tusla. It is part of its wider continuum of aftercare looking at foster care, residential services and aftercare. As the Deputy knows, the previous Minister brought in a statutory aftercare package from 2017 as part of the strategic plan for aftercare. The supports being put in place in that are being looked at. We are looking at things like the difference in treatment between a young person who remains in education or training or who does not and the continuation of the payment of the aftercare allowance. Therefore, issues like that in terms of the strategic plan for aftercare are being examined again because those are the young people who are most vulnerable to homelessness.
Absolutely, I appreciate that but when I talk about youth homeless figures of more than 1,500, I think the Minister will acknowledge that does not actually give the real figures because many young people - again, I hate to use statistics - are living longer at home and they are not captured by these figures. Nor do the figures include many young people who are sofa surfing. Young people who have come out of care, who the Minister described, have nowhere to go and end up sofa surfing or living with family or friends in overcrowded, cramped conditions.
Of course, the evidence is there with the number of young people on our streets the length and breadth of the State in areas we normally would not see any homeless people. More and more younger people are exiting the services about which the Minister talked who are ending up on the streets, increasing the figures. There is a real failure. We are one year through a three-year strategy, and I genuinely question whether the strategy is worth the paper it is written on because implementation is key.
Focusing on those young people who are most vulnerable is the best area for Government and for all Departments to focus their resources. As I said, I have set out what we are doing in terms of people exiting care. Another key group that has been identified and, indeed, Focus Ireland did a very good study on this, are young LGBTI+ people who are at risk of homelessness, particularly in terms of family tensions that may have occurred as a result of their coming out. That is why another one of the key elements we are working on is training for homelessness services in terms of the particular needs for LGBTI+ young people who are presenting at services. However, we are also looking at the other element of family support to see what we can do to prevent those tensions within families building up which actually cause young people to feel they have to leave home. That is why the focus on family supports is another one of the eight action points for our Department that we are prioritising.
34. Deputy Mattie McGrath asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will outline, in light of recent statements by members of Government in relation to the pressures currently being faced in terms of the level of people seeking refuge and asylum in this country, the plans his Department has to urgently address these high levels; to address the concerns in relation to the “pull factors” which may be leading to the high levels; his plans to impose further restrictions to reduce pressures on capacity; if he will outline the full level of expenditure by his Department on housing asylum seekers and refugees in this country from 1 January to 31 October; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48842/23]
I tabled this question last Thursday before the events transpired in Cashel. I want to ask the Minister about the current pressures on the numbers of asylum seekers entering this country. Recent statements were made by An Taoiseach and, indeed, by the Tánaiste in the last ten days, but more importantly the Taoiseach when he was in Korea. He spoke about the pressures we have here and the pull factor that is coming from other European countries where people are coming over here because they feel it is a nicer place and easier to get in and that there is more accommodation. I want the Minister to answer those questions and maybe include a response on the events in Cashel.
The Government is committed to doing all it can to support all those seeking refuge in Ireland. As the Deputy said, there is significant pressure to find sufficient suitable accommodation for all who seek it. Ireland has provided accommodation to more than 99,000 people between those fleeing the war in Ukraine and international protection applicants. That compares to 8,300 people in early February 2022. Of those, 74,000 are beneficiaries of temporary protection who are fleeing the war in Ukraine, and a further 25,000 are international protection applicants.
In a situation where the availability of suitable accommodation for both Ukrainians and international protection applicants remains extremely challenging, suitable temporary contingency measures continue to be explored. My Department is aware that some types of accommodation, such as tented solutions, are far from ideal and we continue to work hard to find alternative solutions that provide shelter for all who need it.
I am aware of some of the recent commentary and media coverage referring to perceived pull factors that attract refugees to Ireland. It is important to state at the outset that clear and well-established rights to claim international protection are set out. They are binding in Ireland, all European countries and countries all over the world. There are also clear legal rights in terms of those who seek temporary protection fleeing the war in Ukraine. As a country, we have much to be proud of in terms of our response over the last 18 months. Ireland continues to keep its obligations, particularly under the temporary protection directive under review. As the Deputy knows, there is work ongoing across government right now looking at the scope of our offering under the temporary protection directive.
I will use some of my supplementary time to respond directly in terms of Cashel.
I thank the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien, for their engagement with us on Cashel over the weekend and particularly with me last night. We have done our fair share, of course we have. The Taoiseach is making these soundings as is the Tánaiste, but we all know we just cannot cope. Why did the Government feel it necessary to send out a tweet in numerous different languages to get people to come here?
We are certainly the land of the céad míle fáilte and we want to be, but when it came to Cashel especially, why displace our own homeless people by taking a hostel that is part of the Tipperary action plan for housing and for homeless people? The building is being used for that. Why is there not proper consultation? There is no consultation. Why is there not proper engagement? Surely the Minister should have checked with the county council whether it was using this facility, which it is. Now our unfortunate homeless people who were in that hostel and had been promised they could be there for the next number of weeks have all been moved out in advance of today's imminent arrival of 74 male applicants from we do not know where. It is has been very badly handled. The people are welcoming and Cashel people are welcoming, but they need to be engaged with, listened to and understood.
I thank the Deputy. As we are on record, it is important to correct his point. I have never sent out a tweet inviting people to Ireland. At the time we published the White Paper we sent out tweets letting people know the changes that were being made, because as the Deputy knows there are a lot of people in the international protection process who wanted to see what changes were being made. We therefore informed them about the plans in the White Paper, but there was never any invite. That is a meme, a trope that dwells on the Internet, but it is not true.
With regard to Cashel, I have always made it very clear that even though our need to respond to the housing needs of international protection applicants and Ukrainians is extensive, we will never interfere with either existing social housing lists or existing processes in place to deal with homelessness here. Deputy McGrath and other Deputies have been in touch with me about the hostel in Cashel and we recognise there is an issue there. My officials are engaging with officials in Tipperary County Council. I hope to have clarity for Deputy McGrath and other Deputies tomorrow.
We welcome that. We will not get back into the tweets and will leave them for another day, but I will get back into realpolitik. The Minister says his Department will not take away housing or shelters, but this is what is happening in Cashel. Officials from the Minister's Department told me they want accommodation and their duty is to get it from wherever, whoever and whatever, so we need to be very realistic. I salute the people who took Ukrainians into their houses and homes. It was the spirit of the meitheal and the welcoming Irish. However, this is a situation where greedy developers are buying up premises, some of which are in very bad condition, and getting a fortune. Some have got €15 million. Above all, we must have a cut-off measure as we cannot continue this. I am told 800 international applicants are coming in per week. We just cannot cope with that. We have 12,500 homeless ourselves and many of those are children. In this case in Cashel we have - I will not say "evicted" because it is too emotive a word - removed persons who were in the hostel. I know that one of them has mental health issues - she is a constituent of mine whom I helped- and had been hoping to be there for a number of weeks. There were many others. They have been moved out with no place to go.
I thank the Deputy. Just to be clear, 800 international protection applicants are not arriving in the State every week.
What is the number?
I think the most recent figure was about 325 per week and it was somewhere between 250 and 350 over the last number of weeks. At one point in recent weeks the number of Ukrainians arriving was 800, but it is important we get the figures right.
It is.
We are working closely with Tipperary County Council to resolve the issue in Cashel. As I have said, it is a core principle of our Department that regardless of how much pressure we are under to meet accommodation needs, we are not going to interfere with existing homelessness services. As I said, we are looking to resolve the particular issue in Cashel right now. Ireland, like every other European country and every other western country, is under pressure right now. There are wars across Asia and Africa. There are climate crises generating migration. We must have a system that is ready to respond to that. That is going to take reform of our system with respect to both the accommodation element and the processing element.
35. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to detail the effect the HSE recruitment freeze will have on delivering disability services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48528/23]
I ask the Minister to detail the effect the HSE recruitment freeze will have on delivering disability services and to make a statement on the matter.
I thank the Deputy for raising this important question. The Department, along with the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, has engaged with the HSE to ensure the recruitment pause for certain grades does not unduly affect the provision of existing disability services. On the day we launched the roadmap, the Minister and I met Bernard Gloster, Bernard O'Regan and David Walsh. The whole purpose of the meeting was to outline that we were very concerned about what effect the pause would have on disability services. We clearly asked them if we could get the clarity the Deputy is seeking in order that a newly worded letter would go out to the section 39 organisations, the section 38 organisations and the HSE. Only this evening we got clarification that disability services will not be impacted. Bernard Gloster is communicating directly to the section 38 organisations, as we speak, the HSE and the section 38 organisations. That will mean the medical grade staff - namely, grades 1012 and 1538 - along with the domestic staff grade, the drivers grade, the service co-ordinator, area manager grades, the family support workers, the day service supervisor grades, the care assistant grades, the social care workers and the personal assistants will not be impacted whatsoever. In fact, where organisations need to fill posts one for one, they will absolutely be able to continue to do that. That is a real, clear signal that disability and the HSE works to the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, under the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and the HSE is also answerable at the same time to the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly. Very clearly this evening, Bernard Gloster gave the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, and I assurances that disability services will not be impacted by the pause.
I thank the Minister of State for that reply because it is very welcome. Only today I was talking to someone from a section 38 organisation that provides residential, respite and day services. They have already met their board to curtail their services in the coming weeks. The services will still be curtailed because the organisation was in the middle of a recruitment process a number of weeks ago with 60 staff positions to fill. They were not healthcare positions, but care assistant positions, which were initially under the recruitment pause. Those interviews and recruitment processes were paused. The organisation will welcome the news the Minister of State has given us here, but it is still going to mean it will take the organisations a number of months to go back and fill those positions because many of the people the organisation was in the process of recruiting will be gone to other positions.
That is ridiculous.
It is a month. People are not going to hang around for a job they do not know is going to materialise, or did not know would until today. It was paused on 13 October, so services are going to be affected. Fortunately, this will be and can be addressed, but can agency staff be taken on in the meantime?
I appreciate exactly where providers are coming from and the uncertainty that correspondence caused, but I do not accept it will take months upon months for staff organisations were interviewing to be taken on for posts. Disability services is probably one of the only services across the HSE that is recruiting at this moment in time and it is doing so across all the posts I laid out for the Deputy. To be honest with her, we have worked as speedily as we could and to be fair to Bernard Gloster, he has responded as quickly he could. He knew this question was here this evening, so I welcome his pragmatism in responding to us. The letter will issue in the morning, so I ask providers to take up tools as speedily as they put them down when they got word there was a pause.
I thank the Minister of State. The organisations will do so, but what they were saying was they had people in the process of being recruited and they do not think those people are still going to be there. They hope they will, and if they are then the organisations will take them on, but they said people will leave, because they have to. Given the demands of paying for the cost of living and so on, people are going to move on to something else unless they are sure the job is going to come up.
Health and social care professionals were exempted from the recruitment pause, but they cannot be recruited for love nor money anyway. We know that within even the children's disability network teams, CDNTs. I have a question on those teams because 41 of the 91 are HSE-run and I think 24 are section 38 organisations as well. Are they affected in any way by the recruitment pause across any of the grades, including management, administration staff and so on? All the staff are very important.
I reassure the Deputy that, as David Walsh said, this should ideally encompass residential, respite, personal assistance day services and CDNTs. He also said it would be limited to roles to which he referred. The entire disability service, be it respite, residential, personal assistance day services or CDNTs, the HSE and section 38 and section 39 organisations will continue to recruit. This is a real recognition that disability services need to recruit. There are hundreds of posts unfilled that I hope we will be able to attract staff to in order to reduce the deficit. I acknowledge that there is a serious deficit in our CDNTs. That is why, as a matter of priority, could not have a pause in this regard.
