Written Answers Nos. 1070-1094
1070. Deputy Peter Burke asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if there are vacancies in the offices of his Department at a location (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5494/20]
View answerMy Department does not have offices in the Longford or Westmeath areas.
1071. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the breakdown of capital funding provided to crèches in the past five years by funding stream; and the number of additional places the funding has created. [3966/20]
View answerThe following table represents the capital funding streams where additional places were created under each capital programme. Applicants under Early Years Capital 2015 were not required to quote the number of additional places created and hence a figure is unobtainable.
(EYC-Early Years Capital, SCA-School Age Capital)
|
Year |
Strand |
Number of places |
Sum of Grant Value |
|
2015 |
EYC Strand 1 |
Not available |
€6,402,167.00 |
|
2016 |
Universal Strand |
15077 |
€6,226,900.00 |
|
2017 |
EYC Strand 1 |
1172 |
€2,637,042.00 |
|
2017 |
SAC Strand A |
2426 |
€1,009,998.00 |
|
2017 |
SAC Strand B |
1858 |
€ 940,173.98 |
|
2018 |
EYC Strand 1 |
1730 |
€3,553,067.00 |
|
2018 |
SAC Strand 4 |
726 |
€ 693,090.00 |
|
2019 |
EYC Strand A |
1,321 |
€3,729,615.00 |
|
2019 |
SAC Strand C |
3,123 |
€3,063,465.00 |
1072. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the estimated capital cost of creating an additional early years place. [3967/20]
View answer1073. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the estimated capital cost of creating an additional after school place. [3968/20]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 1072 and 1073 together.
It is not possible to accurately estimate the capital cost of providing an additional after school place, as each place which is created has unique costs, ranging from minor modifications to an existing community owned structure, to a new build. Costs also vary based on the location of the after-school service, as this impacts on the cost of land, and the costs and availability of builders to carry out the works.
My Department operates an annual Capital Programme under which early learning and care and school aged childcare providers are invited to apply for capital supports for building works, including after-school care. Grants issued under the Capital Programme are not based on a set amount for each place created, but are calculated based on the costings submitted by the applicant.
Last December I announced the details of the 2020 capital funding programme with €7.2m being made available for the Early Learning and Care and School Age Capital programmes, an increase of over €1million on the 2019 capital programme for this sector.
Due to the COVID-19 closure of childcare facilities, the 2020 Capital Programme has been suspended, but is being kept under review.
Childcare was identified as a strategic priority under the National Development Plan and €250m was committed to the development of additional, high quality, childcare capacity.
1074. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she has considered exempting early years providers from commercial rates; and if an assessment has been conducted as to the cost of the measure. [3969/20]
View answerThe matter of rates payments for the early learning and care and school age childcare sector does not fall under the remit of my Department, nor does my Department have a role in determining which properties are rateable. The levying of commercial rates is the responsibility of the Valuations Office, which falls under the aegis of the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. As such, and as my Department does not hold data in respect of commercial rates, I am not in a position to provide an estimated cost of exempting early learning and care providers from commercial rates.
However, my Department has made considerable investment in the provision of affordable and accessible quality childcare, and I am conscious that the issue of commercial rates may be a barrier to achieving these goals.
The issue of commercial rates has been regularly raised by the sector, in particular through the National Early Years Forum, which I established in 2016. My Department has taken a number of steps to pursue this matter, including meeting with relevant officials to explore the possibility of obtaining an exemption of the application of commercial rates to private childcare providers, on the basis that they are educational facilities. Services which operate the ECCE programme only ( free pre-school) are already exempt.
Further efforts in this regard included my writing to the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, requesting reconsideration of the position of private childcare facilities in respect of their rateability for commercial rates. It was confirmed that there are no proposals under consideration for a discount of commercial rates for private childcare providers, and that the Commissioner of Valuation has no discretionary latitude to grant exemptions not covered by Schedule 4 of the Act.
As the Deputy will be aware, the Government has agreed to suspend commercial rates for businesses most immediately impacted by Covid-19, including childcare facilities, for three months. This is just one of a suite of measures the Government has put into place to support the early years learning and care sector in these unprecedented times.
1075. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the estimated cost of extending the ECCE programme by one, two, three or four weeks, respectively accounting for potential increases in capitation rates of €5, €10, €15 and €20, respectively. [3970/20]
View answer€297m euro has been allocated to the Early Childhood Care and Education programme in 2020.
The Early Childhood Care and Education programme runs for 38 weeks each programme year. The standard capitation rate paid to providers is €69 per child, per week and the higher capitation rate is €80.25 per child, per week.
The below table displays the full year financial impact of extending the weeks available and increasing the capitation rates according to the specified increments, in line with current levels of programme uptake.
Table 1: Annual Cost of ECCE Programme Extension and Capitation Increase (€m)
|
No Change |
Plus 1 week |
Plus 2 weeks |
Plus 3 weeks |
Plus 4 weeks |
|
|
No Change |
€297.00 |
€304.80 |
€312.60 |
€320.40 |
€328.20 |
|
Plus €5 |
€316.50 |
€324.90 |
€333.20 |
€341.50 |
€349.90 |
|
Plus €10 |
€336.10 |
€344.90 |
€353.80 |
€362.60 |
€371.50 |
|
Plus €15 |
€355.60 |
€365.00 |
€374.30 |
€383.70 |
€393.10 |
|
Plus €20 |
€375.20 |
€385.00 |
€394.90 |
€404.80 |
€414.70 |
As AIM (the Access and Inclusion Model for children with a disability) funding is intrinsically linked to ECCE capitations, any increase in rates or durations for the ECCE programme has an impact on associated AIM costs.
If an increase of 1 week in ECCE duration was required, there would be a corresponding 1 week increase in AIM Levels 1 & 7 costs.
If there was an increase in the ECCE capitation rate of €5, €10, €15 or €20, there would be a corresponding increase in AIM Level 7 costs as the AIM Level 7 costs.
In 2020, the AIM level 7 programme is budgeted for circa €26m and AIM level 1 programme will cost circa €5.4m based on current AIM level 1 and 7 projected applications.
The below captures the impact of the outlined increases to the estimated allocation for AIM Level 1 & 7 support costs in 2020 on an annual basis.
Table 2: Annual Cost of AIM costs Associated with Programme Extension and Capitation Increase (€m)
|
No Change |
Plus 1 week |
Plus 2 weeks |
Plus 3 weeks |
Plus 4 weeks |
|
|
No Change |
€31.4 |
€32.2 |
€33.0 |
€33.9 |
€34.7 |
|
Plus €5 |
€33.4 |
€34.3 |
€35.1 |
€36.0 |
€36.9 |
|
Plus €10 |
€35.4 |
€36.3 |
€37.2 |
€38.2 |
€39.1 |
|
Plus €15 |
€37.4 |
€38.4 |
€39.3 |
€40.3 |
€41.3 |
|
Plus €20 |
€39.4 |
€40.4 |
€41.4 |
€42.5 |
€43.5 |
Tables 1 and 2 should be combined to provide the full cost of additional ECCE weeks and capitation levels for all children attending, including those with a disability.
1076. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the estimated cost of restoring the school completion programme to peak levels of funding; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3971/20]
View answerThe full-year cost of restoring the SCP to 2010 funding levels would be in the region of €7.3 million per annum.
An additional €1.24m was secured in Budget 2019 for the School Completion Programme. This funding is a once off funding to support SCP in their capacity to carry out preparatory work and support organisational development within the respective programmes in advance of the finalisation and implementation of the Policy Blueprint.
1077. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the status of the review into the ABC programme. [3972/20]
View answerA national evaluation of the ABC Programme 2013-2017 was undertaken by the Centre for Effective Services (CES). Data was collected locally, at the area-level, in order to assess the effectiveness of the totality of the investment with regard to the main outcomes the programme aimed to address: Improved child health and development; Improved children’s learning and Improved parenting. The evaluation also looked at the impact of the ABC Programme on local service delivery, and at the costs associated with the delivery of the programme.
Overall, the national evaluation found evidence that the ABC Programme made
a positive contribution to:
1. Improved outcomes for children and families
2. Changes for practitioners and service managers participating in the Programme
3. Changes to service planning and delivery.
A range of qualitative and quantitative data was collected and analysed for the purposes of evaluation. These included outcomes data collected from the ABC areas, as well as data from surveys and interviews with practitioners, programme managers and other stakeholders. Given the local nature of data collected, there are currently no plans to publish the data sets.
The national evaluation was completed in October 2018 and a full report and summary report has been produced and is available on the What Works website and the CES website.
My Department initiated a process, in consultation with key ABC Programme stakeholders, to consider options for sustaining the work of the ABC Programme within a new vision for a community based prevention and early intervention programme from 2019 and beyond. Following these consultations, the decision was taken to transfer the current ABC Programme to Tusla, from September 2019 as part of the national Prevention, Partnership and Family Support Programme (PPFS).
This transition has now taken place and the new structure will build on the achievements to date in both the ABC and PPFS Programmes, and strengthen Tusla’s prevention and early intervention operations. As part of this national structure, it will take a renewed focus on addressing child poverty and inform the delivery of prevention and early intervention initiatives, improving the lives of children and families throughout Ireland.
The ABC National Evaluation - Full Report is available online at
https://whatworks.gov.ie/app/uploads/2019/04/National-Evaluation-of-the-Area-Based-Childhood-Programme-Report-Oct-2018.pdf
1078. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the estimated full-year cost of continuing the ABC programme. [3973/20]
View answerThe Area Based Childhood (ABC) Programme is a prevention and early intervention initiative targeting investment in effective services to improve the outcomes for children and families living in a number of specific areas of disadvantage.
DCYA is now the sole funder of the ABC Programme. In November 2017, my Department initiated a process, in consultation with key ABC Programme stakeholders, to consider options for sustaining the work of the ABC Programme within a new vision for a community based prevention and early intervention programme from 2019 and beyond. Following these consultations, the decision was taken to transfer the current ABC Programme to Tusla, from September 2019 as part of the national Prevention, Partnership and Family Support Programme (PPFS).
This transition has now taken place and the new national structure will build on the achievements to date in both the ABC and PPFS Programmes, and strengthen Tusla’s prevention and early intervention operations. As part of this national structure, it will take a renewed focus on addressing child poverty and inform the delivery of prevention and early intervention initiatives, improving the lives of children and families throughout Ireland.
The budget agreed for 2020 for the Prevention Programme in Tusla is €9.5m, approximately €8.2m of which is allocated to the ABC Programmes.
1079. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the estimated cost of restoring family resource centre funding to peak levels on a per centre basis, that is, taking into account the number of centres within the network. [3974/20]
View answerTusla, the Child and Family Agency, administers the Family Resource Centre (FRC) Programme.
Prior to 2014, funding to the Family Resource Centre (FRC) Programme was provided by the Family Support Agency (FSA). The FSA was established by the Department of Social and Family Affairs in 2001 and responsibility for the agency transferred to the Department of Children and Youth Affairs in 2011. The FSA was dissolved under the Child and Family Agency Act, 2013 on the establishment of Tusla, the Child and Family Agency in 2014. The FSA's constituent programmes, including the FRC Programme, were transferred to Tusla.
In 2008, a total of €18.94 million in funding was allocated to the FRC Programme, supporting 107 Family Resource Centres across the country. This represents the peak level of annual funding for the FRC Programme, as referred to by the Family Resource Centre National Forum.
The funding allocation to the FRC Programme in 2020 is €18 million. To increase funding to 2008 levels would therefore require an additional €0.94 million.
There are currently 121 Family Resource Centres funded by Tusla under the FRC Programme. To increase funding to 2008 levels, on an average per centre basis, would require funding of approximately €21.3 million annually, or an additional €3.3 million over the current budget allocation.
1080. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of full-time equivalent social workers Tusla is seeking to recruit in the next 12 months; and the overall target of Tusla for full-time equivalent social workers in tabular form. [3975/20]
View answerI wish to advise that my officials have asked Tusla to respond directly to the Deputy on this matter.
1081. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of full-time equivalent social workers employed by Tusla in tabular form. [3976/20]
View answerI wish to advise that my officials have asked Tusla to respond directly to the Deputy on this matter.
1082. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the estimated cost of ensuring that staff employed by her Department and agencies under her aegis receive the living wage of €12.30 per hour. [3977/20]
View answerAs the Deputy may be aware, any adjustments to the salaries of public and civil servants are set out in the Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA) 2018-2020.
A suggested living wage of €12.30 per hour would equate to an annual salary of €23,747, based on a standard civil service net working week of 37 hours. DPER Circular 22/2019 sets out the adjustments to the pay of certain civil servants on 1 January 2020 as provided for under the Public Service Pay and Pensions Act 2017 and is available on gov.ie/circulars
As the information requested is not readily available in respect of the agencies under my Department's remit, I have asked the Adoption Authority of Ireland, the Children Detention School Campus and Tusla to furnish this information directly to the Deputy.
1083. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the estimated full-year cost of hiring an additional social worker. [3978/20]
View answerTusla has advised that a response issued directly to the Deputy on this matter on the 10 March, 2020.
1084. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of beneficiary children at each level of subsidy of the national childcare scheme in tabular form. [3979/20]
View answerThe National Childcare Scheme (NCS) opened to online applications on 20 November. Paper based applications are also now available. The Scheme provides the first ever statutory entitlement to financial support for childcare.
There has been a very high volume of applications so far. Over 31,500 applications, relating to over 40,900 children, have already been successfully submitted and over 37,500 awards have been made to parents. (Over 9,700 of these are universal awards and over 27,700 are income-assessed awards). Parents must bring this award to their childcare provider and once their provider has registered the details, payments will begin to flow. Over 15,000 children have benefited from their NCS award since the scheme launched.
As the Deputy will be aware all childcare facilities were closed on March 12 due to the COVID emergency.
The following table displays the numbers of children at each level of subsidy whose subsidy is linked to a transmitted payment. Subsidy rates are grouped into 50 cent intervals. For example, “2.00” refers to all subsidies greater than €2 per hour, but less than €2.50 per hour.
The Deputy may be aware that the older childcare schemes, CCS and TEC, continue to operate for thousands of children. Parents can choose to transfer from these onto NCS at any time with the support of their provider.
The ECCE scheme is also operating totally separately to the NCS.
The subsidy amounts set out below arise from the available voted expenditure in 2019/ 2020.
|
Subsidy Rate (€) per hour |
Number of children |
|
0.00 |
495 |
|
0.50 |
4465 |
|
1.00 |
1318 |
|
1.50 |
1354 |
|
2.00 |
1373 |
|
2.50 |
1382 |
|
3.00 |
1361 |
|
3.50 |
2739 |
|
4.00 |
2037 |
|
4.50 |
71 |
|
5.00 |
260 |
|
5.50 |
4 |
It should be noted that all counts contained in the table above are distinct at the Subsidy Rate and Standard/Enhanced level. Attempting to add together the component parts of a distinct count may result in a falsely inflated or otherwise miscalculated total figure. This is because some children will have multiple subsidy rates for the same award week.These figures were provided on May 8th 2020.
1085. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her policy plans to bring the ECCE scheme under the remit of the national childcare scheme. [3980/20]
View answerThe National Childcare Scheme (NCS) opened to online applications on the 20th November. Paper based applications are also now available. The Scheme provides the first ever statutory entitlement to financial support for childcare. It is an innovative, user-friendly scheme to help parents meet the cost of quality childcare. The development of the Scheme is a significant move forward in delivering quality, accessible, affordable childcare to families throughout Ireland.
The NCS streamlined historical childcare subsidy schemes (CCS and TEC), wrapping them around the ECCE scheme.
In developing the NCS IT system, DCYA also developed a new IT platform to support the NCS, and, over time, all other schemes and initiatives relayed to childcare, in a structured and coordinated manner. The transition of various existing schemes and initiatives onto this new IT platform is ongoing, with ECCE currently planned to migrate in 2020, subject to successful development and testing in the coming months
The First Five Implementation Plan 2019-2021 commits that DCYA will undertake a review of the ECCE programme and, subject to findings, consider the need to make changes. Over the lifetime of the First Five strategy, it also commits to the introduction of a universal legal entitlement to pre-school.
The precise mechanism for delivering on this legal entitlement remains to be decided, however integration with the National Childcare Scheme under the Childcare Support Act 2018 is a clear option in this regard.
1086. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the amount of grant funding recouped from community childcare services in respect of children attending fewer hours of childcare than was contracted for them to attend under the community childcare subvention scheme in 2019, by county in tabular form. [3981/20]
View answer1087. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of children whose number of childcare hours under the CCS programme was reduced following an audit by her Department of the attendance of the child in tabular form. [3982/20]
View answer1091. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she has considered conducting a study into the impact of the recently introduced rule changes by which her Department can recoup funding from a community childcare service in circumstances in which an audit finds that certain users of that service did not attend all childcare hours that the service was initially contracted to provide. [3986/20]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 1086, 1087 and 1091 together.
The Deputy will be aware that investment in the Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School Age Childcare (SAC) sector has increased by an unprecedented 141% over the last five budgets, with funding totalling €638m in 2020. Ensuring that this fund is appropriately accounted for, and that as many children as possible benefit from it, is one of the core responsibilities of my Department. Pobal administers the beneficiary funding element on behalf of my Department and ensures good governance and strong compliance with the rules of the schemes.
Subsidies for all ELC and SAC programmes are based on child attendance, a key governance component of the funding for which my Department is responsible. Where, during a compliance visit, Pobal discovers that the actual attendance of a child does not match that child’s registration on Pobal’s Programme Implementation Platform (PIP, Pobal's IT system), the service will be advised to make the necessary corrections to registrations to ensure that the total amount of funding received for the programme year is correct. An appropriate amount of flexibility is applied to this corrections process and Pobal works with services on a case-by-case basis in this regard.
CCS rules have been updated in recent years to clearly link funding to actual attendance during a snapshot period. This reflects the importance of safeguarding Exchequer finances and brought this scheme in line with the other schemes offered by my Department, which are also linked to child attendance.
My officials and Pobal actively monitor services’ compliance with scheme rules, potential recoupment and the impact of this activity on a service's sustainability. This includes regular reporting on compliance findings, including potential recoupments due to non-compliance. Pobal, the City and County Childcare Committees (CCCs), along with officials from my Department, support and work with services to ensure compliance with the scheme rules and to support continued sustainability of services who may be affected by compliance activity.
Based on data provided by Pobal, the total value of overclaims identified during compliance visits in 2018/19 on the CCS scheme, by county, is set out below. Please note that this relates to overclaims found through a fair and objective process, and not to recoupments.
|
County |
Overclaims identified during compliance visits (€) |
|
Carlow |
60,127 |
|
Cavan |
13,579 |
|
Clare |
92,522 |
|
Cork |
39,965 |
|
Donegal |
38,358 |
|
Dublin |
1,279,143 |
|
Galway |
180,546 |
|
Kerry |
147,623 |
|
Kildare |
19,792 |
|
Kilkenny |
138,158 |
|
Laois |
70,794 |
|
Leitrim |
15,724 |
|
Limerick |
444,402 |
|
Longford |
26,408 |
|
Louth |
49,768 |
|
Mayo |
63,371 |
|
Meath |
48,248 |
|
Monaghan |
55,195 |
|
Offaly |
12,369 |
|
Roscommon |
4,881 |
|
Sligo |
89,723 |
|
Tipperary |
54,060 |
|
Waterford |
144,063 |
|
Westmeath |
89,695 |
|
Wexford |
62,629 |
|
Wicklow |
5,467 |
|
Total |
3,246,610 |
Where a compliance visit identified that attendance during the four-week snapshot period was less than the PIP registration for that period, the provider was required to make amendments to PIP registrations, which would affect the value of their CCS contract for the year. These figures provide an estimate of the value of the changes to PIP registrations on CCS required as a result of compliance activity. Since CCS funding for the programme year was set by attendance during this snapshot period, these are annualised figures.
Where an overclaim is identified, services are required to make corrections to PIP registrations and future funding is adjusted to ensure that the overall level of funding provided across the year is correct. Funding is based on attendance during a snapshot period, and any overclaim is looked at on an annual basis. As a result, the annualised overclaim consists of two parts: the amount overpaid up to the point of the compliance visit and therefore recouped; and the potential overclaim amount that would have occurred had it not been corrected for the period after the compliance visit. The overclaims identified figures provided above are the combination of the two. Funding payments are made in instalments and corrections can be made at various times during the year.
It should be noted that, where services were required to make corrections to their CCS registrations, they had the opportunity to reregister children onto CCSP. CCSP offers the same rate of subvention as CCS did, but allows for a greater degree of flexibility for service providers and parents. It allows for the level of attendance registered on PIP to be adjusted throughout the year to reflect the ongoing pattern of attendance. The availability of this option ensured that services would not lose out in instances where children under-attended during the snapshot window but later began to attend at a higher level. It also means that a portion of the overclaims identified (as shown in the table above) is likely not to have materialised, since a child could be moved off CCS and onto CCSP, thus ending the overclaim on CCS.
Pobal have calculated that a total of 3,144 registrations required updating following a compliance visit on CCS for the 2018/19 programme cycle. As previously outlined, services are required to update registrations when the registered level on PIP differs from the actual pattern of attendance of the child. The figures supplied do not indicate a scenario where children had hours reduced; rather they count instances where CCS registrations needed updating in order to match actual attendance during the snapshot period.
It is important to note that the compliance activity should not result in any child having any service withdrawn, rather it strives to ensure that the service provider only claims from my Department for the hours the child is attending. Data available to my Department shows that the number of children accessing Government subsidies continues to increase.
While CCS has been closed, CCSP will continue to operate for the foreseeable future for any children that were registered before 15th November 2019. CCSP is now closed to new entrants families can avail of the National Childcare Scheme (NCS).
The NCS has marked another significant milestone for ELC and SAC in this country, creating an infrastructure from which Government can further increase investment in services over the next decade. The NCS enables Government to annually / incrementally build investment until it gets to target levels. The NCS enables Government to target this funding as it becomes available at particular groups, or indeed universally. The NCS is also a more user friendly system for parents and providers and the compliance regime has been designed to reflect the real-life attendance of children, the flexibility required, balanced against the continued need to protect Exchequer funding.
1088. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her policy plans to allow for the number of ECCE hours that a child is eligible to receive to be contingent upon the attendance of the child at their ECCE service. [3983/20]
View answerThe number of ECCE hours that a child is eligible to receive is contingent upon the attendance of the child at their ECCE service.
Since September 2018, all children meeting the minimum age requirement of 2 years and 8 months are eligible for two full programme years on the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme. The ECCE programme is offered for 3 hours per day, up to 5 days per week, for 38 weeks of the year.
A parent/guardian may choose to avail of, for example, only 3 days of ECCE per week, if the ECCE provider can make this service available. This would mean that their child attends for 9 hours of free early learning and care under the ECCE programme. The childcare provider would receive the ECCE subvention pro rata reduced to correspond with the 9 hours provided in this scenario.
Service Providers must keep daily attendance records for each child attending and records must include the child’s full name, date of attendance, time of child’s arrival and time of child’s departure. Where attendance differs from registration in a consistent pattern over a four week period, registrations must be updated to reflect the actual pattern of attendance. An update on the Programme Implementation Platform (Pobal's online registration system) must occur immediately after the four weeks of the reduced attendance pattern commencing.
In exceptional circumstances, for example, serious illness, the service provider may apply to retain a child's registration beyond four weeks up to a maximum of twelve weeks.
1089. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if community childcare services are advised by her Department or an agency acting on its behalf to send their staff home in circumstances in which the expected number of children do not present for their service. [3984/20]
View answerMy Department does not employ staff working in the early learning and care or school age childcare sector. Community based services, as with privately operated services, employ staff to provide services which may be subsidised under programmes funded by my Department.
With regard to the number of childcare practitioners required to be present in a service, the minimum adult to child ratios are clearly set out in Schedule 6 of the Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) Regulations 2016.
I am not aware of any cases where a member of staff of my Department, or of an agency acting on behalf of my Department, would have cause to instruct a staff member to leave the premises due to the absence of expected children.
If the Deputy is aware of such an occurrence, I would welcome any information she could share with me.
My Department, through Pobal and the 30 City and County Childcare Committees, provides expert advice to services which are experiencing sustainability concerns. The Case Management services uses expert resources / tools to identify, in an evidence based manner, whether the service's business or service model is fit for purpose. The tools used may, for example, suggest that the service has too many staff for the number of children registered in any given term. This information is shared with the provider to assist them in their decision making and to assist with the sustainability of their service. It is a matter for the service to decide how to use the information, if at all. Once-off funding is also available to assist community services transition to a more sustainable footing.
1090. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her views on whether it is fair for early years services that sign a contract with her Department for the provision of childcare schemes to sign these contracts in advance of receiving a copy of the programme and funding rules for the programme year. [3985/20]
View answerMy Department does not require early learning and care providers to sign contracts for the various childcare programmes in advance of receiving a copy of the programme and funding rules.
In order for service providers to be eligible to receive subsidies in respect of childcare funding programmes, it is a condition that they enter into a funding agreement with my Department prior to the commencement of the programme year in August. This is in accordance with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform Circular 13/2014 entitled Management of and Accountability for Grants from Exchequer Funds.
For the last three programme years, the rules for the childcare funding programmes have been released prior to the commencement of the programme year. Service providers have the option to sign the funding agreement any time before the commencement of the programme year. The following table shows that the rules document was published with sufficient time for service providers to familiarise themselves with its contents.
|
Programme year |
Publication date of Rules |
Commencement date of programme |
|
2017/18 |
July 24th 2017 |
August 22nd 2017 |
|
2018/19 |
August 9th 2018 |
August 20th 2018 |
|
2019/20 |
June 10th 2019 |
August 19th 2019 |
The process of signing contracts is completed online via the Programmes Implementation Platform.
1092. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the amount expended on access to online and hardcopy media publications in each of the years 2017 to 2019 and to date in 2020; the breakdown of online and hard copy subscriptions including the publications that her Department subscribes to; if consideration has been given to using a banded set of IP addresses for online subscriptions rather than individual accounts; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4001/20]
View answerThe information requested is contained in the following table:
Spending on Media Publications 2017 to 2020 (all figures in Euros):
|
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
||
|
Digital |
Reach Home Delivery |
160 |
170.8 |
214.18 |
59.97 |
|
Post Publications Ltd. |
169.99 |
169.99 |
169.99 |
nil |
|
|
The Irish Times Ltd. |
1724.71 |
403.32 |
1778 |
nil (invoice to be received in Oct 2020) |
|
|
Kantar Media |
5990.38 |
4297.58 |
3814.58 |
779.52 |
|
|
New York Times |
nil |
nil |
12 |
nil |
|
|
Hard |
McCarthy's News Delivery Service |
3914.3 |
3328.9 |
nil |
nil |
|
OfficeDrop Ltd. |
nil |
nil |
3233.56 |
526.84 |
The Department has no subscriptions to online or hardcopy publications that are in the form of individual accounts.
1093. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the top ten websites visited by officials and political staff annually in each of the years 2017 to 2019 and to date in 2020 via hardware provided to them by her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4017/20]
View answerMy Department's main IT services are currently provided by the Office of the Chief Government Information Officer (OGCIO). IT took over this role on the 2nd of December 2019 when my Department moved to the ‘Build to Share’ model of service provision. The OGCIO has provided me with the most update figures for the top 10 websites visited by my Department as follows:
|
2nd December 2019 - 21st December 2020 |
1st January 2020 - 29th March 2020 |
|
www.irishtimes.com |
www.irishtimes.com |
|
www.amazon.co.uk |
www.gov.ie |
|
www.irishexaminer.com |
www.boards.ie |
|
www.gov.ie |
www.thejournal.ie |
|
www.independent.ie |
www.independent.ie |
|
www.theguardian.com |
www.irishexaminer.com |
|
www.argos.ie |
www.theguardian.com |
|
www.thejournal.ie |
www.airbnb.ie |
|
www.boards.ie |
www.breakingnews.ie |
|
www.breakingnews.ie |
www.rte.ie |
Previous to this, the Department of Health (DOH) provided the main IT services to my Department. DOH has advised me it did not retain records in relation to internet usage for my Department for the time period indicated by the Deputy.
1094. Deputy Seán Haughey asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of allegations of child sexual abuse that were determined as unfounded in 2018 and 2019; her plans to ensure that Tusla creates a mechanism by which the data can be obtained within the next three months; if her attention has been drawn to the fact that a similar Parliamentary Question was submitted by this Deputy, that is, Parliamentary Question No. 666 of 17 December 2019, but no subsequent response has been received from Tusla to date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4064/20]
View answerI would like to thank the Deputy for bringing to my attention that he did not receive a reply to his initial question from Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, and wish to apologise to the Deputy for the inconvenience.
I am informed by Tusla that a direct reply issued to the Deputy in early March, which stated that 2019 figures were expected in early Q2 2020. I have therefore written to Tusla and asked for an update in relation to the matter.
