Written Answers Nos. 571-590
571. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the amount of additional funding that was made available for family resource centres in each of the years 2019 to 2021 to enable them to pay annual increments to their staff. [9209/22]
View answerTusla, the Child and Family Agency, administers the Family Resource Centre (FRC) Programme which provides funding support to 121 FRCs across the country. My Department allocates core funding for the FRC Programme and since 2019, an additional €1.5m has been provided in funding. This has meant that funding for the years 2019, 2020 and 2021 amounted to €18 million.
Since the establishment of Tusla in 2014, the Agency has funded many organisations, mostly in the community and voluntary sector, to deliver services on its behalf under sections 56 to 59 of the Child and Family Agency Act 2013. These organisations operate independently of Tusla and are responsible for the recruitment of their employees and the terms and conditions under which they are employed. Therefore, the remuneration of these staff is a matter for these organisations as employers.
Each organisation funded under these arrangements operate independently of Tusla. Each is responsible for the recruitment of employees and the terms and conditions under which individuals are employed. Section 56(14) of the Act of 2013 stipulates that ‘an arrangement under this section shall not give rise to an employment relationship between a service provider, its employees or agents on the one hand and the Agency on the other’.
572. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the percentage of family resource centres that have paid the double increment plus 2.5% agreed at the Workplace Relations Commission conciliation for 2018 to their staff. [9210/22]
View answerSince the establishment of Tusla in 2014, the Agency has funded many organisations, mostly in the community and voluntary sector, to deliver services on its behalf under sections 56 to 59 of the Child and Family Agency Act 2013. These organisations operate independently of Tusla and are responsible for the recruitment of their employees and the terms and conditions under which they are employed. Therefore, the remuneration of these staff is a matter for these organisations as employers. As such, I cannot provide the data requested by the Deputy.
Each organisation funded under these arrangements operate independently of Tusla. Each is responsible for the recruitment of employees and the terms and conditions under which individuals are employed. Section 56(14) of the Act of 2013 stipulates that ‘an arrangement under this section shall not give rise to an employment relationship between a service provider, its employees or agents on the one hand and the Agency on the other’.
Prior to the establishment of Tusla in 2014 some of the organisations now funded under section 56 were funded by the HSE under section 39 of the Health Act 2004. In October 2018 the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) reached agreement between the Department of Health and HSE and trade unions representing staff in certain section 39 organisations. Pay restoration in relation to organisations funded through section 39 was applied to organisations who met certain specific criteria.
The criteria related to the organisations rather than types of individual workers that are employed in them. The criteria included only organisations who received in excess of an agreed, specified amount from the HSE by way of the Service Level Agreement process. Pay restoration was limited and solely applicable to those organisations included in the initial WRC agreement. This process has reached a final resolution and there is no scope to revisit eligibility criteria.
573. Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of drop-in childcare services operating; the location of these services by county council; the financial supports available to drop-in services; if he has any particular start-up supports for such services and their business model; the reason that there are so few operating as exclusive drop-in services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9288/22]
View answer576. Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of drop-in childcare services broken down by exclusively drop in and also as part of the wider service as a percentage of the overall number of registered childcare services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9291/22]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 573 and 576 together.
As at the end of January 2022, there were 4,128 early years services registered with Tusla. Of these, 17 services were listed exclusively as a drop-in service, with a further 10 services including drop-in as part of their wider service provision. On this basis, there were 27 services providing drop-in services, representing 0.65% of the total number of early years services on the national register.
Tusla does not collate the requested data by local authority area but does collate it by county. As at the end of January 2022, the total number of registered early years services listed as a drop-in broken down by county is as follows:
|
County |
Exclusively Drop In |
Part of Wider Service |
Total |
|
Cork |
3 |
0 |
3 |
|
Donegal |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
Dublin |
5 |
4 |
9 |
|
Galway |
3 |
1 |
4 |
|
Kerry |
1 |
0 |
1 |
|
Kilkenny |
1 |
0 |
1 |
|
Limerick |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
Louth |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
Meath |
1 |
0 |
1 |
|
Tipperary |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
Wexford |
2 |
0 |
2 |
|
Wicklow |
1 |
1 |
2 |
|
Total |
17 |
10 |
27 |
Most of the early years services on the Tusla register operating as drop-in services are situated in hotels, shopping centres and leisure centres; however, there are some in other settings, which receive funding by State, (e.g. services operating as drop-in services situated in Family Resource Centres, refugees or Drug Treatment Services).
As with any early years service, drop-in services must register with Tusla and meet the regulatory standards as set out in the Childcare Act 1991 (Early Years Services) Regulations 2016. Drop-in services are intended to be used exclusively on an intermittent basis and children attending should attend for no more than 2 hours consecutively. Given this, children who attend early years services operating exclusively as drop-in services are not funded under my Department’s funding schemes, specifically the ECCE programme (which operates over 3 hours per day, 5 days per week, 38 weeks per year) or the NCS and CCSP.
574. Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the financial supports being provided to early learning and care in relation to insurance costs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9289/22]
View answerEarly Learning and Care (ELC) and School Aged Childcare (SAC) services are required to have insurance as part of their registration with Tulsa, the independent regulator of the sector. My Department provides funding to childcare providers under a number of programmes to provide fully or partly subsidised childcare services to families. Childcare providers are private businesses and my Department does not provide funding for specific operational costs such as insurance.
With regard to the cost of insurance, it is important to note that neither the Government, nor the Central Bank of Ireland, can direct the pricing or provision of insurance products, as this is a commercial matter which individual companies assess on a case-by-case basis. This position is reinforced by the EU Single Market framework for insurance (the Solvency II Directive) which expressly prohibits Member States from doing so.
Notwithstanding this, insurance reform is a priority for this Government. The Action Plan for Insurance Reform, which was launched on 8 December 2020, contains a range of deliverables in a number of Government Department policy areas. It is intended that the cumulative effect of the implementation of the actions will be to improve the insurance environment, in particular for businesses. I am a member of the Sub-Group for Insurance Reform, chaired by An Tánaiste, which has been set up within the Cabinet Committee for Economic Recovery and Investment to implement these reforms, and will publish progress reports every six months.
Seeking to secure a more sustainable and competitive market through deepening and widening the supply of insurance in Ireland remains a key policy priority for this Government. In this regard, it is the Government’s intention to ensure that the implementation of the Action Plan can have a positive impact on the affordability and availability of insurance for individuals, businesses and voluntary groups, including childcare providers.
575. Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the status of Budget 2022 additional childcare funding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9290/22]
View answerBudget 2022 introduced a ground-breaking package of measures for the early learning and childcare sector - designed to deliver quality for children, affordability for parents, stability for providers, and support employers to improve pay and conditions for staff.
In Budget 2022 I have secured an additional €78m in early learning and care (ELC) and school age childcare (SAC) funding, bringing the total investment in the sector to €716m in 2022.
The €716 million investment in ELC and SAC includes €69 million for a new Core Funding stream for providers in 2022, equivalent to €207 million over a full year - this will ensure sustainability of services and support the introduction of an Employment Regulation Order (ERO) to determine minimum rates of pay for workers as well as conditions of employment.
In return for this funding, there will be a commitment from providers not to increase parental fees, meaning the full affordability effects of the NCS and the universal ECCE Pre-school Programme will be felt by parents.
In advance of the introduction of the Core Funding Stream, a Transition Fund, of up to €37m, will be available to providers, also contingent on an agreement not to increase fees from September 2021 levels. This fund will now operate between May and August 2022, after the end of the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme in April 2022 and prior to the introduction of Core Funding in September 2022.
577. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the extent to which he remains satisfied with the level of crèche facilities throughout the country; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9299/22]
View answerThe availability of high-quality early learning and childcare that is affordable and accessible is a key Government priority.
Since 2015, significant increases in State investment in early learning and childcare has given rise to a substantial growth in the numbers of children participating in these services. More than 100,000 children now participate on the universal pre-school programme on an annual basis and the National Childcare Scheme subsidises up to 80,000 children.
To ensure that the supply of early learning and childcare places meets demand, my Department has, since 2015, funded the creation of more than 27,000 new places through an Annual Capital Programme.
Before the onset of Covid-19, national data indicated that, on the whole, supply of early learning and childcare places was meeting demand, with evidence of undersupply for certain age groups, and in certain areas and my Department was taking a number of steps to address this, principally through capital investment through the National Development Plan.
Data gathered throughout the Covid-19 pandemic revealed lower demand for early learning and childcare, and reduced occupancy among early learning and childcare services. Indeed, data captured in June 2021 found significant vacancy rates across the country – with the national vacancy rate averaging at 21%.
My Department is continuing to monitor early learning and childcare capacity, particularly in light of the recent lifting of Covid-19 restrictions.
Pobal has, using the data captured in June 2021 and current registration data, recently projected vacancy rates in February 2022. While this analysis shows a fall in vacancy rates from June 2021 to February 2022 – with vacancy rates falling from 21% to 19%, this analysis suggests that there is unused capacity across the country. Further analysis is being undertaken by Pobal to establish if this unused capacity varies by type of provision or location, to establish any mismatch is supply and demand for certain cohorts or children or in certain areas.
Pobal will also commence new data collection in April 2022, as part of the Annual Early Years Sector Profile survey. This will allow for updated information on capacity among early learning and childcare services to be established. In addition, my Department is undertaking research on the early learning and childcare needs of parents who work atypical hours or live in rural communities under way.
Parents experiencing difficulty in relation to their early learning and childcare needs should contact their local City/County Childcare Committee (CCC) for assistance. Contact details for CCCs may be found on www.myccc.ie.
578. Deputy Neale Richmond asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth when the next round of core funding for childcare providers and contracts will be announced; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9315/22]
View answerBudget 2022 announced the introduction of a new Core Funding stream with an allocation of €69 million in 2022 for the September to December period, equivalent to €207 million in a full year.
The details of Core Funding were further articulated in Partnership for the Public Good: A New Funding Model for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare published in December.
Core Funding will be available to Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School Age Childcare (SAC) providers for the 2022/2023 programme year, subject to an Employment Regulation Order being agreed by the Joint Labour Committee and coming into effect.
Core Funding is designed to achieve a number of policy objectives simultaneously:
- To support providers to improve quality, principally by improving pay and conditions as the most significant issue impacting on quality
- To improve affordability for parents by ensuring that fees do not increase
- To contribute to providers’ stability and sustainability
The amount of money available to providers will be determined by information on their annual service hours; total service capacity per age range offered; the number of graduate Lead Educators in early years rooms in the service; and if the service has an ELC graduate as the service manager.
Allocations for Core Funding will therefore be based on service capacity and not on child registrations and attendance levels. Capacity is the number of childcare places a service can provide while adhering to the requirements under the Regulations for age ranges/session types/ratios.
This type of funding alongside the existing schemes will contribute to services’ stability and sustainability.
The existing schemes will continue to operate alongside Core Funding with funding distributed based on child registrations and attendance.
The amount payable under Core Funding will be determined at the start of the programme year and will be paid to providers in equal instalments over a 12 month period, and will not fluctuate based on children’s attendance as it is determined by capacity.
Conditions of the contract include maintaining fees at or below September 2021 rates, participating in data collection exercises and offering the National Childcare Scheme (part time/full time/SAC services) and the Early Childhood Care and Education programme (sessional services) to parents.
A Ready Reckoner to support services to determine the potential value of Core Funding to their service will be available in early March.
This will be followed by:
- Stage 1 of the Application process, a data collection survey in April
- Stage 2 of the Application process, providers will be able to define their service’s capacity through an online application process which will be open in May
- Contracting in June
- Payments will flow to providers from the end of August
In the interim period in advance of Core Funding, significant additional investment is being made in the sector through the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS), which will remain available to the sector until April 2022, with a continued exemption to the turnover rule for employers in the sector. Following the cessation of EWSS, a once-off Transition Fund will operate from May to August 2022, to support providers in the period leading up to the new Core Funding stream, in return for a commitment not to increase fees from September 2021 levels. The sum paid to each service under the Transition Fund will depend on the service’s capacity and location, and will reflect opening hours.
579. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if his Department was alerted to correspondence between the CEO of HIQA and the CEO of the HSE relating to a matter (details supplied); if so, the date the attention of his Department was drawn to the correspondence; when his attention was drawn to the matter; and when the attention of the Ministers for State at his Department was drawn to the matter discussed in the correspondence. [9416/22]
View answerNoting that the Department of Health retains responsibility for community and specialist disability services, pending the full transfer of functions to my Department in the coming weeks, my Department was not alerted to the specific correspondence referred the Deputy's question. The matter itself was brought to my attention by Minister Rabbitte at the end of December.
Until the transfer of functions takes place between my Department and the Department of Health, the issue in the details supplied is a matter for the Department of Health.
580. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of times he has received correspondence from the CEO of HIQA since he took office; and the dates on which he received the correspondence. [9417/22]
View answer581. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of times he has met with the CEO of HIQA since he took office; and the dates on which such meetings took place. [9418/22]
View answer582. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of times the CEO of HIQA has requested to meet with him since he took office. [9419/22]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 580 to 582, inclusive, together.
I am collating the information for the Deputy and will respond in due course.
583. Deputy Michael Ring asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the amount that his Department has paid for advertising, features and so on in a magazine (details supplied). [9569/22]
View answerThe Deputy might note that my Department has no record of payment in respect of advertising or related costs to Public Sector Magazine.
584. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the annual funding for domestic violence refuges from 2015 to date by county in tabular form. [9646/22]
View answerI have referred the question to Tusla for direct response to the Deputy as the matter raised is an operational matter for Tusla.
585. Deputy Michael Ring asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if his Department has won any award from a publication (details supplied); if so, when this award was won; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9827/22]
View answerI can confirm to the Deputy that since my Department's establishment in June 2020, it has not won any awards from the Public Sector Magazine.
586. Deputy Jennifer Whitmore asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth when he envisages his Department will establish a climate action unit; the reason for the delay in establishing the unit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9892/22]
View answerIn line with its responsibilities under the Climate Action Plan 2021 - Securing our Future, my Department has established a Climate Action Unit.
587. Deputy John Brady asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he uses an application on his official Government phone; if so, if he has the disappearing messages setting activated on the application on his phone; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9954/22]
View answerI can confirm to the Deputy that I do have the application on my Department provided phone, but I do not have the disappearing messages function activated.
588. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth further to Parliamentary Question Nos. 651 of 10 March 2021 and 496 of 9 November 2021, if he will share with this Deputy correspondence which was forwarded to the Department of Health in 1996 by the Adoption Board after the Department inquired from adoption authorities if they had been made aware of or involved in cases of illegal birth registration. [10101/22]
View answerI can confirm that, since replying to Parliamentary Question No. 496 of 9 November 2021, my Department is arranging for correspondence that resembles the Deputy's description to be released to the Deputy.
This work involves careful and detailed analysis of relevant policy and guidance to ensure that the records are released in a manner that protects the privacy of individuals and respects their rights under the General Data Protection Regulation.
589. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if he will review the case of a person (details supplied) in relation to the Higher Education Authority Covid-19 extension fund with a view to resolving the payment issue for current Department of Education teachers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9044/22]
View answerCOVID-19, as elsewhere, caused major disruption to all activities at our higher education institutions (HEIs). This includes their research activities. In 2020 the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (D/FHERIS), secured a package of €168m to address the impact of COVID -19 restrictions on Higher Education. Of the €168m, €48m was provided to help address the impact of the same restrictions on research.
I am not involved in the assessment of individual cases. The Higher Education Authority was given responsibility for the allocation of these monies to institutions and the funding is administered centrally by the research office led by the Head of Research (or equivalent) in each institution. Extensions supported by this funding were to be allocated to the researchers and research students in greatest need.
I understand from the HEA that each individual applicant’s eligibility to receive a costed extension was determined on a case-by-case basis by their institution and, where relevant, approval to grant a costed extension was to be secured from the appropriate research funder. At TCD part time PhD candidates who are employed by the Department of Education on a full-time basis were confirmed by the institution as eligible to receive a costed extension. In accordance with the ‘One Person One Salary’ (OPOS) principle, serving public servants require the consent of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in order to undertake other forms of paid remuneration in any part of the public service.
I understand that the institution involved sought consent form the HEA to approach DPER seeking permission to provide the candidates with the extra payment a costed extension would bring. Given that the candidates were in full time public service, and were not previously in receipt of a stipend, the HEA turned down the request in relation to a stipend. Research costs may be issued to the candidates through their research account and any subsequent tax liabilities will be the responsibility of the individual. Fees for those impacted by COVID have been waived by institutions.
590. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the target number of graduates from paramedic sciences; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9129/22]
View answer592. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the number of qualified paramedics admitted and graduate from paramedic science degree courses for each year that data in available; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9131/22]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 590 and 592 together.
There are three routes to training as a paramedic in Ireland - recruitment by the National Ambulance Service, recruitment by the fire brigade or entry into the University of Limerick's B.Sc in Paramedic Studies. The number of entrants accepted by the NAS and fire brigade is a matter for those organisations, in line with their recruitment needs. While there are other paramedic training courses provided in HEIs, UL's degree is the only one designed for students who are not already working as paramedics. The entrants and graduates from this course are below. As it began in 2016, graduate figures are only available for 2020 at this time.
|
Year |
1st Year Enrolments |
Graduates |
|
2016/2017 |
16 |
N/A |
|
2017/2018 |
23 |
N/A |
|
2018/2019 |
19 |
N/A |
|
2019/2020 |
28 |
14 |
|
2020/2021 |
32 |
My Department is strongly committed to supporting the health of the population through the provision of graduates with the key competencies and skills to be effective in the health workforce, and support a range of clinical teams in our health services.
The Programme for Government commits the Department of Health to working with the education sectors, regulators, and professional bodies to improve the availability of health professionals and reform their training to support integrated care across the entire health service.
My officials are actively engaging with the Department of Health on determining the longer term skills needs of the healthcare services, and the role which the further and higher education sector can play in meeting those skills needs. I will ensure that there is continued engagement with all stakeholders to ensure that we deliver graduates with the skills necessary to support our healthcare system and support the strategic workforce planning by the health sector.
