I welcome the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. This is his first time to visit the House as Minister. I congratulate and wish him well in his term of office and have no doubt that he will do an excellent job in his portfolio.
Adjournment Matters
Early Child Care Education
By leave of the House, I would like to share my time with Senator Michael Mullins.
That is agreed.
I also welcome the Minister. I served with him on the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions, which was a pleasure. I congratulate him on his elevation to higher office and wish him well in it. He has a very important brief and I am very grateful that he has been able to come to the House so soon after taking up his post to discuss an issue which relates to the crossover from the HSE to Tusla, or the Child and Family Agency as it might be known, and the different services being transferred. I am raising the case of Ballinasloe Therapeutic Learning Centre which delivers a number of programmes for children and families in the Ballinasloe area. Its aims are to encourage the early referral of children; provide practical support, training and advice for parents; provide an assessment facility for children; and carry out appropriate intervention programmes. It looks to develop children's life skills.
I understand that under section 10 which deals with the provision of funding by the HSE, the centre received €19,000 to deliver two particular programmes. One dealt with group speech and language therapy sessions, while the other delivered individual sessions for the children involved. My understanding is that, with the setting up of Tusla, half of this funding or more is being cut. The centre is being told that it can no longer continue the group speech and language therapy sessions. This will seriously hinder the delivery of its programmes. I understand it has made inquiries with the HSE locally through the primary, community and continuing care service and been told no funding will be available to it to cover the shortfall. I also understand staff in Tusla are quite shocked by this and the allocation the centre has been given.
There is a sense that the setting up of Tusla involves not only a reorganisation of the facilities and services but is also a cover for cutbacks to be made, of which this might be a manifestation. I hope this is not the case and that the Minister is here to tell us this has been an aberration in the change from one system to another; that this essential and very necessary service for children in the Ballinasloe area and their families can be maintained; and that heads can be banged together in respect of the funding of €10,000 which has been taken away. The HSE states it is not its problem, while Tusla states it does not have the money. I hope the Minister can take on this issue in his new role and resolve it.
I thank Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh for sharing his time and welcome the Minister.
I visited Ballinasloe Therapeutic Learning Centre last Friday when I saw for myself the fantastic work being done in it. The organisation was established in 1983 and has been funded by the HSE but will now be funded by Tusla. It is a partnership project between Ballinasloe Social Services, a voluntary organisation, and the HSE. It provides a model of service for children which ensures difficulties identified at an early age can be managed.
There are two elements to what the child care manager at the centre is doing. She works for eight hours with the HSE speech and language therapy service in providing programmes in its dedicated child care facility for small groups of children who require extra intervention owing to a delay in development and disorders. She works for eight hours per week in individual interventions on a sessional basis for children and their parents referred by the HSE, family support workers, public health nurses, early intervention teams, hospital paediatricians and child and adolescent mental health services. Some 63 children are receiving a service at the centre.
I have received a formal submission from the centre. I know that the Minister has had very little time to look at this situation, but I hope that for the want of €9,500, we will be able to ensure that from September this service can continue, given the volumes of children who benefit from it, the fact that difficulties are being identified at an early stage and that the service is helping parents to come to terms with the difficulties experienced by their children. The centre is providing an invaluable service. I extend an invitation to the Minister to spend a few minutes in the facility in the near future to see what is being done in it. The lady who runs it is amazing and the facilities provided are fantastic. I cannot say enough in support of the centre and very much appreciate Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh's sharing of time with me to support this cause.
I thank the Cathaoirleach for his kind words.
I welcome the opportunity to respond to the issue raised by Senators Trevor Ó Clochartaigh and Michael Mullins. I acknowledge the important work done by Ballinasloe Therapeutic Learning Centre in providing a multidisciplinary service for children and families in the local community of east Galway. The centre has been in operation since 1983 and the services provided are designed to ensure the developmental needs of children can be supported and addressed at an early stage.
The issue raised by the Senators relates to the level of funding provided for the centre by the Child and Family Agency. The agency has advised that the level of funding provided for the centre has been reduced by €19,000. The agency provides funding for family support and speech and language therapy services. The reduction in funding, in the order of 2.5%, is required to introduce further efficiencies within the service and as a consequence of the development by the newly established agency of early intervention teams and the redeployment of staff. This has reduced somewhat the requirement to source services externally. I am assured by the agency that no child has been disadvantaged as a result of the realignment of services.
The continuing significant level of support from the agency is being provided at a time when all service providers are faced with particular challenges arising from the need to restore order to the public finances. In addition to the funding provided by the Child and Family Agency, my Department provides funding under the community child care subvention programme which is administered by Pobal and through the early childhood care and education programme. Funding under the community child care subvention programme for the centre for the period from September 2013 to September 2014 will exceed €16,000, while funding provided under the early childhood care and education programme amounts to €44,000 in the period from September 2013 to May 2014.
The Government is making a very significant investment, totalling more than €260 million, in child care programmes nationally. This means that close to 68,000 children benefit annually from child care places as a consequence of this expenditure. Despite the challenging budgetary position, we have succeeded in maintaining the preschool year as a universal and free programme, ensuring a significant number of children can avail of quality preschool services who would not otherwise be in a position to do so.
The Senators will appreciate that all service providers in receipt of State funding have had to generate efficiencies in service delivery. While I appreciate the challenges involved and those outlined by the Senators, we need to ensure all resources available to support the provision of early years services are fully maximised. The approach of the Child and Family Agency as outlined is consistent with this objective.
I cannot agree with the line in the Minister's response, "I am assured by the agency that no child has been disadvantaged as a result of the realignment of services," because I am being told this is not the truth. I am told that there are children who will be disadvantaged, particularly those involved in group speech and language therapy sessions. I am told that their development will hindered as a result of these cuts. Perhaps this is a line the Minister has been given by the Child and Family Agency or Tusla. I, therefore, ask him to go back and investigate the matter further because I do not believe it to be the truth. I am told by those delivering the service that it is not the truth and think Senator Michael Mullins concurs with me. Will the Minister reassess the matter, ask those involved in the service about it and reassess whether the funding can be restored because its removal will certainly disadvantage children in the Ballinasloe area?
I have listened carefully to what the Senator has said. In his earlier contribution he mentioned the possibility of a facility for knocking heads together. I will certainly undertake to facilitate that process, the result of which I am unable to pronounce at this stage. It may well be that through Pobal or other agencies or in conjunction with the Child and Family Agency, we may be in a position to examine this situation further. I have carefully noted what the Senator has said about children being placed at a disadvantage. As I am conscious of what I have told the House in terms of children being disadvantaged, I will, with the consent of the House, revert to the agency and correspond privately with the Senators, if that is acceptable.
Education and Training Provision
I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Ciarán Cannon, for coming to the House. Our interactions are almost a daily occurrence at this stage. I recently received representations from the staff at Drogheda Community Training Centre, following a letter they received on Friday regarding the withdrawal of funds by SOLAS from May 2015. This news came as a shock to the staff in the training centre. Unfortunately, they were given no reason as to why funding will be withdrawn next year. The chairperson of Drogheda Community Training Centre received a letter on 8 May which reads as follows:
In accordance with clause 25.1 of the agreement, we hereby notify you of our intention to terminate the agreement. This clause provides that any such notice must be given not less than 12 months in advance of such termination. Accordingly, unless terminated earlier, pursuant to clause 25.2, the agreement shall terminate on 8 May 2015.
No reason was given for the termination of the agreement. The community training centre, in partnership with SOLAS, provides important training for early school leavers and has a strong presence in the local community. The training centre provides an avenue for young people to achieve personal and work-related skills. The foundation this training centre provides has enabled countless numbers of young people to achieve goals that might otherwise not have been possible. Having spoken with staff from Drogheda Community Training Centre I can attest to the passion and commitment they have for their work. They are devastated by this news. The Drogheda Community Training Centre has provided an excellent service for 30 years and I sincerely hope we can find some way to ensure that this continues.
The Minister of State is well aware of the importance of these centres and the links they provide within the training process. I ask him to address this situation immediately as this will have a very negative impact on the local community and particularly on early school leavers.
I thank the Senator for raising this matter on the Adjournment. As everyone is aware, significant reforms are ongoing at every level of the Irish education system, particularly in the further education and training area and in higher education. We are slowly but surely moving towards a closer alignment to the labour market based on evidence from all relevant stakeholders, including employers, learners, the unemployed and international best practice. Just two days ago the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, and I launched Ireland's first ever further education and training strategy which sets out exactly the route for all learners, irrespective of their existing skills set and levels of attainment, to access a very high quality and meaningful further education and training opportunity. The aims of these reforms can be summarised as follows: to support inclusion and diversity; to improve equality and accountability; and to create opportunities for learners and trainees to go on to the next level of training or into the world of work.
It is my Department's objective and ambition to create a strong, relevant and co-ordinated further education and training sector through structural change which involves a number of reforms. Central to the reform process has been the creation of SOLAS, our new further education and training authority, which is tasked with a co-ordinating and funding role and the local education and training boards, ETBs, which are tasked with the delivery of further education and training services. We now have our 33 VECs amalgamated into 16 ETBs, each with the scale and capacity to improve the opportunities offered to those out of work. By 1 July, all of the former FÁS training centres will have transferred over to the ETBs and the training that takes place within those centres will be provided under the auspices of the ETBs.
SOLAS was tasked with preparing a five-year strategy which was published this week. The strategy was devised through an exemplary consultation process, which involved seeking and listening to the views of everyone involved in the sector, from learners to Government and from employers to trade unions. SOLAS submitted the strategy to the Minister for Education and Skills on 31 March and it was officially launched this week.
SOLAS is tasked with achieving the best possible outcomes for our learners, value for money for the taxpayer and appropriate standards of corporate governance by training providers. I understand that following a review of learning outcomes and a cost benefit analysis, SOLAS training north east has decided to discontinue funding for Drogheda Community Training Centre from May 2015. I am informed that current learners will be supported to complete existing programmes and individual learning plans will be agreed and supervised by SOLAS and Drogheda Community Training Centre to ensure continuity of service delivery. Early school leavers who would normally have been referred to the centre will receive priority referral to access other suitable training programmes in the Drogheda area. It is the intention that in the next 12 months Louth Meath Education and Training Board, including SOLAS training north east, will engage with all relevant stakeholders with a view to further enhancing provision for early school leavers in the Drogheda area. SOLAS and I would like to thank the staff and the board of management of Drogheda Community Training Centre for their service and professionalism in dealing with these matters.
If I understand the Minister of State correctly, this decision is based on the review of the learning outcomes and a cost benefit analysis. Will all of the students who are attending the centre move to other centres or finish their courses in Drogheda? Can the Minister of State guarantee this?
No student will be disadvantaged in any way by the closure.
Will the students have the same access to courses?
Yes.
What will happen to the staff of Drogheda Community Training Centre?
I am not aware of the arrangements that have been made for the staff. I will speak to SOLAS and the local ETB and provide that information to the Senator as soon as possible.
I thank the Minister of State.
The Seanad adjourned at 8.50 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 15 May 2014.