Parliamentary questions

Special Educational Needs Data

Clare Daly

47. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Education and Skills the way the National Council for Special Education and his Department arrived at the number of 32 hours as the benchmark for a full-time post for a special needs assistant. [4580/14]

Special Educational Needs Data

Clare Daly

48. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide a list of the number of schools where special needs assistants' hours equate to the full 32 hours that were stated in the report or recommendation. [4581/14]

Special Educational Needs Data

Clare Daly

56. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Education and Skills which report or recommendation the National Council for Special Education used as the guideline for implementing the 32-hour system as a basis for calculating an hourly rate. [4717/14]

Autism Support Services

Clare Daly

57. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Education and Skills when his officials will be in a position to discuss the concerns and questions of organisations involved with preschool ASD classes to the recent changes to the home tuition grant and policy pertaining to the opening of preschool ASD classes and provision of early intervention. [4718/14]

National Council for Special Education

Clare Daly

58. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Education and Skills the criteria upon which the National Council for Special Education determines who is a stakeholder in determining with whom they will consult in terms of the policy advice due out in 2015 on the education of persons with ASD; the criteria to be included on the list of stakeholders; and the way a person or organisation may submit their recommendations and research for consideration. [4719/14]

Building Regulations Qualifications

Clare Daly

140. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if he will revoke SI No. 9 relating to building regulations, due to come into effect on 1 March 2014, as the mandatory certification by an architect or similar professional will increase costs and will not improve standards, and instead to revert to the system of oversight by local authorities as enforcement action is the only way to avoid some of the appalling breaches of regulations that took place over the past number of years. [4673/14]

Legal Aid Service Expenditure

Clare Daly

150. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the fee rate for each fee type for senior counsel, junior counsel and solicitors for each year, or part of a year, from 1987 to 2013 for all fee types and for District Court, Circuit Court, Central Criminal Court and Special Criminal Court, for murder, rape and standard cases under the criminal legal aid system. [4576/14]

Departmental Investigations

Clare Daly

208. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Health the reason he will not investigate documents from the Cappagh Farmers Support Group relating to an investigation (details supplied). [4716/14]

Architectural Heritage

Clare Daly

11. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the supports that are available from his Department, and the contact he has had with the Department of Defence, to preserve the heritage that exists of a garrison community, unique in Ireland in the Curragh Camp which although under the Department of Defence contains much civilian history and is of national historical importance. [3952/14]

Inland Waterways Maintenance

Clare Daly

25. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht regarding the review of the Canals Act (Amendment) By-Laws 2014, his plans to extend the review and include provisions similar to those existing in Britain for long-term barge dwellers; and if not, the way he proposes to deal with this issue. [3953/14]

Pensions Reform

Clare Daly

125. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Social Protection the steps she has taken to ensure, in the guidance notes for the Pensions Board relating to the recently enacted Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2013, that a scale of protection to recognise length of service, age, duration and varying contributions made is included to protect members with long pensionable service and contributions; and that the Pensions Board is required to not just notify pensioners about reductions but to provide for negotiations and appeals. [3527/14]

Community Welfare Services Provision

Clare Daly

138. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Social Protection the criteria for the establishment and location of Intreo offices; if it is appropriate that these services should lead to existing well supported amenities being relocated. [3526/14]

Tax Compliance

Clare Daly

209. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Question No. 143 of 15 January 2014, if he will confirm that the identified companies are now predominantly insolvent property development or building firms and that this will impact on the outcome for the Exchequer; if the tax scheme in question involved the use of charitable trust structures; and if so, will he elaborate on same. [4142/14]

Special Educational Needs Service Provision

Clare Daly

303. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Education and Skills the reason, 15 months after his Department promised the children's ombudsman that it would promptly publish its autism policy, his Department has failed to do so; and his views on whether it is reasonable to expect the teachers of those people with autism to be able to summarise Government policy from the existing legislation, regulations, rulings, order plans, strategies and stated polices when it has taken more than 15 months for the experts in his Department to do so. [4324/14]

Departmental Properties

Clare Daly

310. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the reason the Office of Public Works acquired a building and handed ownership to Fingal County Council, in order to move their existing library into it along with a small museum, while the premises of the existing library will be sub-let from the county council by the OPW for an Intreo office; and if it would be more efficient to acquire the building and have Intreo sub-let the new building, rather than engage in the extra expense and dislocation of moving the library. [3545/14]

Local Authority Finances

Clare Daly

531. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if the restriction imposed on county councils freezing development levies and mandating that expenditure on capital projects had to be confined to the amount of levies raised in a particular year is still in place; and the reason for same. [2575/14]

Prisoner Data

Clare Daly

578. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the age profile of female prisoners currently incarcerated in the State. [3667/14]

Equality Issues

Clare Daly

593. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the steps he will take to address the gaps in Irish equality laws with regard to equal access to goods and services for those receiving social welfare payments, in particular access to rented accommodation for persons currently in receipt of rent allowance. [4177/14]

Equality Issues

Clare Daly

594. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Justice and Equality if he will take action to address the ongoing discrimination against social welfare recipients with regard to rented accommodation being advertised with a no rent allowance accepted stipulation. [4178/14]

Hospital Appointments Administration

Clare Daly

701. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Health his plans for a hospital accompaniment service for elderly or vulnerable citizens who might otherwise miss important hospital appointments and fail to adequately engage with the medical profession. [3669/14]