Written Answers Nos. 412-423
412. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the figure provided by his Department to maintain existing levels of service in 2024, under his respective remits ahead of Budget 2024; the figure granted by the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform in each case; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51172/23]
View answerA significant part of the annual budgetary process is determining the amount of funding required for Departments to carry out their existing functions, before any new decisions are taken. This is referred to as the ‘Existing Level of Service’ or ELS. ELS funding provides for the maintenance of my Department's existing services and schemes.
The Medium Term Expenditure Strategy, agreed by Government in 2021, set out an indicative overall provision of 3 per cent of the core current base each year to meet ELS pressures. This is an estimated cost to aid overall fiscal planning based on trends observed in previous years. This is an overall provision rather than a set rate of increase for each Department. In July, the Government agreed the 2023 Summer Economic Statement outlining an estimated amount of €2.3 billion in respect of the additional costs arising in 2024 to deliver ELS.
ELS is part of the additional expenditure funding allocated each year and delivers additional investment in public services, through for example providing existing schemes to a growing number of people, and investment in the public service workforce.
Each year both as part of the whole of year Budget process and the finalisation of Estimates, ELS is considered in detail in each Vote. This requires an assessment of the specific needs of the Vote including previous budget decisions, the impact of the existing public sector pay deals and any demographic or other demand impacts.
Government agreed a total Government Expenditure Ceiling of €96.6 billion for Budget 2024. The costs of ELS were estimated as circa €1.8 billion or 2.4 per cent of the current expenditure base. This was lower than the amount indicated in the Summer Economic Statement. This is due to a number of factors including review of service usage rates and requirements, and cyclical factors impacting take-up and costs of schemes and supports.
413. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the total number of IPAS applicants and Ukrainian refugees, respectively, currently accommodated with the support of the State; the respective number of IPAS applicants and Ukrainian refugees in receipt of State-supported accommodation per local authority area, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50527/23]
View answerIreland has provided accommodation to approximately 100,000 people between those fleeing Ukraine and International Protection (IPs) applicants. This compares with 8,300 in February 2022. This includes over 74,000 Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection (BOTPs) from Ukraine who required State supported accommodation and over 25,000 International Protection applicants currently in IPAS accommodation.
The information requested has been extracted from our systems and is outlined in tabular form below.
Please note that the below table refers to BOTPs in DCEDIY-provided accommodation only.
|
Local Authority |
BOTP* |
IP** |
|
Carlow County Council |
893 |
178 |
|
Cavan County Council |
1281 |
184 |
|
Clare County Council |
3889 |
719 |
|
Cork City Council |
2049 |
705 |
|
Cork County Council |
3777 |
790 |
|
Donegal County Council |
5494 |
1533 |
|
Dublin City Council |
3002 |
3186 |
|
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council |
383 |
257 |
|
Fingal County Council |
1044 |
2412 |
|
South Dublin County Council |
2565 |
3326 |
|
Galway City Council |
1343 |
968 |
|
Galway County Council |
2606 |
209 |
|
Kerry County Council |
7284 |
725 |
|
Kildare County Council |
620 |
792 |
|
Kilkenny County Council |
902 |
156 |
|
Laois County Council |
388 |
636 |
|
Leitrim County Council |
1054 |
88 |
|
Limerick City and County Council |
2324 |
401 |
|
Longford County Council |
373 |
143 |
|
Louth County Council |
898 |
841 |
|
Mayo County Council |
3082 |
1282 |
|
Meath County Council |
1953 |
928 |
|
Monaghan County Council |
423 |
573 |
|
Offaly County Council |
1150 |
235 |
|
Roscommon County Council |
695 |
181 |
|
Sligo County Council |
1892 |
393 |
|
Tipperary County Council |
1563 |
631 |
|
Waterford City and County Council |
1236 |
569 |
|
Westmeath County Council |
1743 |
871 |
|
Wexford County Council |
1889 |
594 |
|
Wicklow County Council |
1473 |
1236 |
|
Total |
59,268 |
25,742 |
414. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the evaluation of local capacity for further accommodation of IPAS applicants that his Department carried out recently, prior to the decision to send over 70 additional IPAS applicants to Killarney; when precisely any such evaluation took place; what the process entailed; what consultation took place with other agencies, departments or relevant parties; the point at which he believes Killarney will have too many IPAS applicants; if he takes notice of concerns expressed by local and national public representatives from the area and concerns by local authority officials; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50528/23]
View answerThe International Protection Procurement Service (IPPS) is responding to an offer of accommodation made in respect of the property in Killarney which would accommodate 70 International Protection applicants (IPs).
The State has a legal obligation to assess the claims of those who seek refuge and in that time to provide accommodation and supports in line with the Recast Reception Conditions Directive (SI 230 of 2018). While the Department acknowledges capacity for service provision may be limited in the area as a result of the current emergency situation, its actions are guided by the need to contract temporary accommodation in order to meet Ireland's legal obligations to accommodate those seeking International Protection. Following further clarification of planning and certification matters, the property is still under consideration for use.
A Community Engagement Team (CET) has been established to engage directly with elected representatives, relevant Local Authorities, Local Development Companies, and other entities and individuals. The purpose of the team is to improve the flow of information regarding arrivals into areas and to help equip local communities with the accurate information required to help them understand the current situation and to assist with the welcome and integration process for new arrivals.
A briefing note which included detailed information in relation to this accommodation issued from the CET to local public representatives on 1 November 2023. This briefing note also issued to the Local Authority and the Local Development Company. The CET also attended a meeting hosted by Minister O’Gorman and Minister Foley.
The CET remains available for further engagement if required.
415. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of Ukrainian refugees and IPAS applicants being accommodated by the State or with the support of the State in Dublin Fingal; the per capita figure that this represents in the context of the overall population of the local authority area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50529/23]
View answerIreland has provided accommodation to approximately 100,000 people between those fleeing Ukraine and International Protection (IPs) applicants. This compares with 8,300 in February 2022. This includes over 74,000 Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection (BOTPs) from Ukraine who required State supported accommodation and over 25,000 International Protection applicants currently in IPAS accommodation.
My Department provides emergency temporary accommodation to persons fleeing the conflict in Ukraine. Some 1,044 Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection (BOTPs) from Ukraine were recorded in serviced accommodation in Dublin Fingal, which corresponds to 0.003 per capita based on the 2022 Census figures for that local authority area. As of 5 November 2023, 2,343 International Protection applicants were being accommodated in IPAS accommodation in the Dublin Fingal area, which corresponds to 0.007 per capita based on the 2022 Census figures for that local authority area.
416. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of Ukrainian refugees and IPAS applicants being accommodated by the State or with the support of the State in Kerry and the per capita figure that this represents in the context of the overall population of the local authority area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50530/23]
View answerIreland has provided accommodation to approximately 100,000 people between those fleeing Ukraine and International Protection (IPs) applicants. This compares with 8,300 in February 2022. This includes over 74,000 Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection (BOTPs) from Ukraine who required State supported accommodation and over 25,000 International Protection applicants currently in IPAS accommodation.
My Department provides emergency temporary accommodation to persons fleeing the conflict in Ukraine. Some 7,284 Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection were recorded in serviced accommodation in Co. Kerry or 0.047 per capita based on the 2022 Census figures for the local authority area.
As of the 12th of November 2023, 702 international protection applicants are being accommodated in IPAS accommodation in Kerry or 0.0045 per capita based on the 2022 Census figures for the local authority area.
417. Deputy Steven Matthews asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if his attention has been drawn to the concerns of some small preschool owners regarding the new requirement to submit detailed end of year accounts; if he will ensure that this process is straightforward; if funding will be made available to cover accountancy costs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50537/23]
View answerCore Funding, which commenced in September 2022, is a grant to Early Learning and Care (ELC) and/or School Age Childcare (SAC) providers towards their operating costs. Its primary purpose is to improve pay and conditions in the sector as a whole and improve affordability for parents as well as ensuring a stable income to providers.
All Partner Services that had an active Core Funding Contract during the 2022/2023 Programme Year must provide validated Financial Returns as per their Core Funding Partner Service Funding Agreement.
Core Funding payments to providers must run on a programme year, September-August, in line with the school year, the operation of the Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School-Age Childcare (SAC) sector, and the payments made to providers under the other DCEDIY schemes. Therefore, the financial returns cover the period from 1st September 2022 to 31st August 2023 and must be submitted by an accountant from a registered practice or a registered professional body (ACA, ACAA, CPA, and CIMA), on behalf of each Partner Service.
In order to fulfil the Financial Returns requirement Partner Services will return a trial balance, which covers the reporting period 1st September 2022 to 31st August 2023. My Department is not requesting audited accounts, Partner Services are instead being asked to provide a trial balance mapped to the Core Funding Chart of Accounts, which has been reviewed, signed off and submitted by an accountant.
Services that already use accountancy packages should be able to extract their trial balance from their package and map it to the Core Funding nominal codes from the Chart of Accounts. However, if a service does not use an accountancy package, a series of resources have been designed to assist services with meeting this requirement.
The Trial Balance guidance documents and additional support resources are available to Providers on the Hive.
My Department acknowledges that there is additional administration for providers with the introduction of new schemes such as the NCS and Core Funding, and has allocated €32.13 million for administration under Core Funding in year two, and €35.34m for the third year of the scheme.
In addition, a number of targeted supports are being considered by my Department to enable Core Funding Partner Services to comply with the financial reporting requirement. Officials with my Department are engaging with members of the Early Learning and Childcare Stakeholder Forum on this matter and have had two meetings to date, with a third to be scheduled in the coming days.
In any instances where a service is experiencing financial difficulty, they can reach out to their local City/County Childcare Committee and avail of Case Management Supports. This can include operational supports as well as financial supports through Sustainability Funding if deemed appropriate.
418. Deputy Sorca Clarke asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the additional funding that was provided in 2022 and to-date in 2023 for day services for disabled people; and the additional places created for day services for disabled people. [50550/23]
View answerHSE-funded day programmes for people with intellectual disabilities, autism, or complex physical disabilities include a range of centre-based and community-based activities. Access to services is based on an individual’s needs rather than on their diagnosis. The focus is on supporting people to participate in the mainstream activities and in the life of their community, in line with their wishes and needs.
Day services are a vital support for adult with disabilities to participate in the life of their community and to realise their own ambitions and desires. The majority of young people due to leave school in a given year that require a HSE funded day service have been profiled by the end of the previous year to establish their support needs to allow for a transition into day services in September.
These services are demand led and the number of new places in any year reflects the number of applications from young people leaving school. Funding is allocated to provide day service placements for approximately 1200-1400 people with disabilities who are leaving school to transition into adult day services.
|
Year |
In Year Cost |
Full Year Cost in following year |
|
2022 |
€14.4m |
€ 33.4 |
|
2023 |
€8.5m |
€32.2m |
|
2024 |
€18.2m |
€36.4m |
As this question refers to service matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive (HSE) to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible. As the Deputy may be aware, the industrial action that commenced on Friday 6 October, by management and administrative grades in Fórsa Trade Union in the HSE, will impact on the response times to Parliamentary Questions and Representations.
419. Deputy Sorca Clarke asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of WTE administrative staff based in Longford children's disability network team in 2021, 2022 and to-date in 2023, in tabular form. [50551/23]
View answerAs this question refers to service matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive (HSE) to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible. As the Deputy may be aware, the industrial action that commenced on Friday, 6 October, by management and administrative grades in Fórsa Trade Union in the HSE, will impact on the response times to Parliamentary Questions and Representations.
420. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if his Department developed the national childcare scheme hourly rate rule; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50552/23]
View answerIn answering this query, it is assumed that the deputy is referring to the fact that the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) is funded on the basis of the number of hours of childcare used by the child per week.
The underpinning rationale approach, including the hours based aspect, was set out in the 2016 "Policy Paper on the Development of a new Single Affordable Childcare Scheme" and given statutory expression through the Oireachtas in the Childcare Support Act 2018.
The NCS is designed to substantially reduce costs to families using eligible early learning and childcare. It is designed to be flexible, recognising that early learning and childcare needs are different for each family.
The hours based nature of the NCS is designed to fit around the needs of families and ensure that the reach and effectiveness of funding is maximised through application to acutal usage of early and learning and childcare usage. The family agrees the number of hours to be used with their provider and (within overall scheme limits) these hours are registered with the scheme administrator. This design allows the parents to receive a subsidy for the hours that they actually require. The number of hours can also be altered week to week, for example during a school midterm the parents subsidy can be increased. My Department has also sought to strike balance between the concept of money following the child and stability for early learning and childcare providers. As such the NCS has been consciously designed to be more flexible than its antecedent schemes.
Funding is only adjusted if the level of attendance that the family and provider originally set does not actual manifest over an extended period. In the usual course a warning will issue after 8 weeks and, if not adjusted after 12 weeks, the allocation will be adjusted to reflect the real pattern of attendance. This period can be extended under certain circumstances
To be clear, if a child is occasionally picked up early or misses an occasional day, this will have no impact on funding.
It should also be noted that services also receive funding on staffed capacity via the core funding scheme.
This combination of flexibility, accountability and funding approaches provides an appropriate balance to support parents, providers and ensure the best use of exchequer funding.
421. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if a unit (details supplied) is to be used to accommodate international protection applicants; and if this decision has not been made, the timeframe for it to be made. [50556/23]
View answerThe State has a legal obligation to assess the claims of those who seek International Protection (IP), and in that time, to provide accommodation and supports in line with the Recast Reception Conditions Directive (SI 230 of 2018), to those that require it.
The International Protection Procurement Service (IPPS) continues to explore all offers of accommodation for international protection applicants IPAs in as far as it can. There remains an acute shortfall with respect to accommodation, and IPPS is working to bring further properties into use to ensure that all those who arrive in Ireland seeking shelter can be accommodated.
IPPS is currently responding to an offer of accommodation made in respect of this property.
As part of the appraisal process, IPPS seek evidence that all applicable building and planning obligations have been met by the provider. The Class C20 F exemption was relied upon in relation to this offer. The use of this property has been paused, pending clarification of the exemption being relied on. This is a matter between the Local Authority and the provider.
IPPS will keep this offer under review pending conclusion of the matters outlined.
422. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth for clarification on a matter (details supplied); the steps that will be taken to rectify a situation in County Kerry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50569/23]
View answerCore Funding, which commenced in September 2022, is a grant to Early Learning and Care (ELC) and/or School Age Childcare (SAC) providers towards their operating costs. Its primary purpose is to improve pay and conditions in the sector as a whole and improve affordability for parents as well as ensuring a stable income to providers.
All Partner Services that had an active Core Funding Contract during the 2022/2023 Programme Year must provide validated Financial Returns as per their Core Funding Partner Service Funding Agreement.
Core Funding payments to providers must run on a programme year, September-August, in line with the school year, the operation of the Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School-Age Childcare (SAC) sector, and the payments made to providers under the other DCEDIY schemes. Therefore, the financial returns cover the period from 1st September 2022 to 31 August 2023 and must be submitted by an accountant from a registered practice or a registered professional body (ACA, ACAA, CPA, and CIMA), on behalf of each Partner Service.
In order to fulfil the Financial Returns requirement, Partner Services will return a trial balance, which covers the reporting period 1 September 2022 to 31 August 2023. My Department is not requesting audited accounts, Partner Services are instead being asked to provide a trial balance mapped to the Core Funding Chart of Accounts, which has been reviewed, signed off and submitted by an accountant. This trial balance created contains a list of nominal codes from the Core Funding Chart of Accounts, this have been created to ensure that there is consistency in the classification of financial information across the sector.
Services that already use accountancy packages should be able to extract their trial balance from their package and map it to the Core Funding nominal codes from the Chart of Accounts. However, if a service does not use an accountancy package, a series of resources have been designed to assist services with meeting this requirement.
The Trial Balance guidance documents and additional support resources are available to Providers on the Hive.
My Department acknowledges that there is additional administration for providers with the introduction of new schemes such as the NCS and Core Funding, and has allocated €32.13 million for administration under Core Funding in year two, and €35.34m for the third year of the scheme.
In addition, a number of targeted supports are being considered by my Department to enable Core Funding Partner Services to comply with the financial reporting requirement. Officials with my Department are engaging with members of the Early Learning and Childcare Stakeholder Forum on this matter and have had two meetings to date, with a third to be scheduled in the coming days.
In any instances where a service is experiencing financial difficulty, they can reach out to their local City/County Childcare Committee and avail of Case Management Supports. This can include operational supports as well as financial supports through Sustainability Funding if deemed appropriate.
423. Deputy Duncan Smith asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of persons within CHO4 awaiting respite service. [50600/23]
View answerAs this question refers to service matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive (HSE) to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible. As the Deputy may be aware, the industrial action that commenced on Friday 6th October, by management and administrative grades in Fórsa Trade Union in the HSE, will impact on the response times to Parliamentary Questions and Representations.
