Written Answers Nos. 600-614
600. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to provide a record of all investigations, sanctions or convictions in respect of a company (details supplied) by his Department to date; and the dates and details of each. [43013/24]
View answerThere have been no sanctions or convictions to date, with respect to the export assembly centre, at the identified location. The facility is regularly visited by my officials who inspect and certify animals for intra-community trade and export. My Department has sought all unedited footage from this facility and broadcast by RTÉ on the 8th October 2024 to determine whether any offences may have been committed. While this investigation is ongoing, it is not appropriate for me to provide any further comment.
There have been six suspensions of vehicles operated for international transport and associated with an approved transporter at this location. These are as follows:
Three suspensions in 2016, 2017 and 2020, relating to failures to return journey logs within the identified time range.
One suspension in 2018 relating to fans on one of the authorised vehicles.
Two suspensions in 2019 relating to documentary issues and non-return of GPS records.
601. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the amount of food products seized by his officials at both Dublin Airport and Dublin Port, to date in 2024. [43130/24]
View answerThe amount of food products which were detained by Import Controls Division in Dublin Port and Dublin Airport to date in 2024 is:
• 1,171.8 tonnes of commercial consignments
• 7.1 tonnes of personal consignments including products seized at Temporary Storage Facilities (TSFs) and passenger baggage
• 8 trailers of undeclared food products
602. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of persons who attained a Green Cert qualification in each of the past ten years and to date in 2024. [43136/24]
View answerThe Green Cert Programme is delivered by multiple education providers from across the further education system. My Department does not collate statistics on Green Cert completions by the various providers.
Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI), which operates under the remit of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, is responsible for accrediting the Green Cert programme.
The Deputy is advised to contact QQI for details on Green Cert completions.
603. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of vacant properties owned by his Department; and the number of which are houses or residential properties. [43137/24]
View answerI wish to inform the Deputy that my Department owns 16 vacant properties of which 4 are residential properties.
While my Department is not the registered owner of Longtown Farmlands and buildings, it does control and manage the farm. This property has been vacant for some time and is not habitable. Plans are underway to have it refurbished.
604. Deputy Michael Creed asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason a person in County Cork (details supplied) has not yet received his ANC payment. [43191/24]
View answerAn application for participation in the 2024 Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) scheme was received from the person named on the 14th of March 2024. An application was also received in the name of this herdowner for Tranche 1 of the General stream of the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES).
The person named received an Area Monitoring System (AMS) notification on two parcels for the Winter Bird Food action on their ACRES application. The applicant rejected the findings of the notification and declared that the crop was growing. This has now been referred back to my Department for review and the person named will be informed of the outcome when the review has been completed. Payment under the 2024 ANC scheme cannot issue to the person named until this matter has been resolved.
605. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he has any plans to provide dedicated services for functional neurological disorder (FND) patients; if his attention has been brought to a recent report which found that Ireland is the only country in western Europe without a specialised FND service (details supplied); if he intends to allocate funding to begin addressing this; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43108/24]
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.
606. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if HSE funding can be made available to ensure assisted living accommodation for a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43188/24]
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.
607. Deputy Paul Kehoe asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of assessments of need that are completed every month in the Blanchardstown and Castleknock area CDNTs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42422/24]
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.
608. Deputy Paul Kehoe asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he would consider introducing SNAs into preschools, especially in preschools that cannot secure an AIM worker, or making SNAs eligible for the role of an AIM worker; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42424/24]
View answerIn line with emerging best practice to support the integration and independence of children with a disability, the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) does not fund Special Needs Assistants (SNAs). Rather, Level 7 of AIM provides financial support to the preschool provider, which is used either to reduce the adult-to-child ratio in the preschool room or to buy in additional assistance to the preschool room. Accordingly, AIM Level 7 assistance is a shared resource for the preschool setting.
For this reason, staff who are supported with AIM Level 7 funding must adhere to the same qualification criteria as their colleagues in the early learning and care setting, as prescribed in Regulation 9 of the Early Years Services Regulations 2016. It is important to stress that the minimum qualification requirement to work directly with children in an early learning care service was introduced in 2016 in order to improve the quality of provision and to achieve better outcomes for children. To remove this minimum qualification requirement could be contrary to the best interests of children and the vision for the sector that is outlined in First 5, the whole-of-Government strategy to improve the lives of babies, young children and their families.
Individuals who wish to work directly with children in a preschool service must hold at least a major award in Early Childhood Care and Education at Level 5 on the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ), or a qualification deemed equivalent. My Department has published a list of qualifications that meet this regulatory requirement. If an individual's qualification does not appear on the list they may apply to my Department for assessment of equivalence of their qualification.
609. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth for a breakdown of the number of children awaiting essential therapies, in tabular form, by CHO. [42448/24]
View answerAs this question refers to service/operational matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive (HSE) to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.
610. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he is aware that a whistleblower revealed details of elaborate spending at a charity (details supplied) as service users complain of cuts and new charges for previously free services; if the Minister will instruct his Department to urgently investigate this charity and if he will provide the outcome of the investigation. [42473/24]
View answerAs this question relates to a specific organisation that is funded by the HSE to deliver services, DCEDIY has reached out to the HSE to request; an update on financial management at Stewarts Care, how it is engaging with the organisation, and the concerns raised in the article from businessplus.ie. Once a response is received from the HSE we will issue a reply to the Deputy.
611. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he could clarify the exact details of what the total payout of €7.6 million by the Government to a company (details supplied) since 2022 has been used for; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42496/24]
View answerSince March 2022, when my Department was faced with the unprecedented crisis of processing and accommodating over 110,000 people fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine arriving into Ireland, my Department utilised the services of Deloitte to support the delivery of its response at pace and scale, particularly in a highly resource-constrained environment.
In the initial phase of the response, Deloitte supported the establishment of a Situation Centre to coordinate my Department’s efforts to find emergency accommodation as a key part of the all of Government response to the war.
Deloitte has assisted with many priority workstreams across the Ukraine Division including but not limited to:
• Improvements to data quality and data governance and robust data monitoring mechanisms to enable data-led decision-making.
• Strategic support to senior management including through data-led assessments of key Divisional challenges.
• Support for process improvements to multiple work processes across the Division, including management of compliance challenges, relocations, payments processes and portfolio consolidation.
• The design and development of a commercial accommodation offers management system.
Under the same contractual agreement, Deloitte gave support to the International Protection Division from November 2023 to July 2024 on the following workstreams:
• Programme management and governance.
• Data management and analytics.
• Operational support.
• IT management and development.
The work with Deloitte under the contractual agreement for support to the Ukraine Division is kept under active review, but given a number of essential workstreams underway at present, it is envisaged that the support sought from Deloitte to be on a similar scale between now and year end 2024. Current expenditure (including initial costs before contract, and support to both the International Protection Accommodation Service Division and Ukraine Division under contract) sit at €7.6m to date.
While this amount is significant, in terms of the overall expenditure of the Division and the dedicated support of Deloitte in accelerating consolidation of our accommodation portfolio along with supporting our ongoing efforts at driving efficiencies, this fee is viewed as justifiable and commensurate with the high level of requests and outputs at this juncture.
The Deloitte team continues to offer expertise in a number of areas such as project management, data analysis, research, process improvement and other areas to the work of Ukraine Division which has been critical in my Department’s response to accommodating and supporting the Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection who have fled the war in Ukraine.
612. Deputy Réada Cronin asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will provide additional resources for early childhood education in rural parts of County Kildare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42546/24]
View answerImproving access to quality and affordable early learning and childcare is a key priority of Government.
The introduction of Core Funding in 2022 brought a significant increase in investment for the sector, with €259m of funding paid directly to services in year 1 of the scheme, of which €210.8 million was entirely new funding.
This funding increased by 11% to €287 million in year 2 of the scheme. This included an allocation of €165 million for staff pay and conditions through the base rate, and a further €52.5m allocated for graduates in the sector, as well as €32m for admin staff/time.
For year 3, Core Funding increased by a further 15% to €331 million. This increase which came into effect from September facilitates increases in the allocation related to provision all age groups of children, the strengthening of targeted measures to support sessional and smaller services, and growth in overall capacity of almost 6%.
In addition to the introduction and expansion of the Core Funding scheme over the last three years, there have also been very substantial increases in investment in the National Childcare Scheme, the Early Childhood Care and Education programme and the Access and Inclusion Model all of which provide resourcing to services. Furthermore, this year also saw the initiation of the new Equal Start element of the funding model which offers a set of universal and targeted measures to support access and participation in early learning and care and school-age childcare for children and their families who experience disadvantage.
There are wider financial supports available from my Department where a service is experiencing financial difficulty or has concerns about their viability, which can be accessed while remaining within Core Funding. These can be accessed by services through their local County Childcare Committee.
Data available to shows that the level of capacity in the sector has risen substantially in recent years. Sector profile data shows an increase in enrolments nationally of 8% between 2022 and 2023 with a similar increase in enrolments in Kildare for the same period.
The Building Blocks Capital Schemes, which are operating over 2024 and 2025, are supporting services to increase capacity through two strands, the Expansion Scheme, with applications now closed, and the Extension Scheme due to open for applications later this year.
The Extension Scheme will provide €25 million in capital funding next year to deliver thousands of new affordable early learning and childcare places. It will offer funding for large scale projects to enable existing community and private services to build new capacity onto their current premises by means of physical extension. It will also allow community services to apply to purchase or construct new premises. Appraisal of applications under the Building Blocks Scheme will consider the supply and demand in the area around the proposed projects and seeks to prioritise funding for areas with the biggest supply/demand mismatch.
Kildare CCC will provide supports to services from Kildare that are applying for funding under this Scheme.
613. Deputy Réada Cronin asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if additional funding will be allocated to support youth centres in Kildare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42570/24]
View answerI am very pleased to have secured an increase in youth service funding by 9% for 2025, bringing my Department's investment under our main youth budget subhead to a total of €84.9 million.
This increased level of funding will enable the expansion of youth service capacity to engage more young people, across both universal and targeted youth services. This will include the establishment of 10 new targeted youth services under the UBU Your Place Your Space scheme. Additionally, a new pilot initiative will be implemented to support selected youth services in providing meals during school holiday periods, as part of the Government’s commitment to tackling Holiday Hunger. Furthermore, €1 million in capital funding is being allocated under the Youth Affairs subhead, with €500,000 specifically earmarked for upgrading play and recreation facilities.
Work is underway in developing the funding allocations across the Youth Services sector for 2025.
614. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of male early years educators employed across the State; the European Union targets for male employment in this sector; the steps being taken to ensure that more males seek employment in this sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42600/24]
View answerIn line with commitments in First 5, in December 2021, I launched Nurturing Skills: The Workforce Plan for Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare, 2022-2028. Nurturing Skills aims to strengthen the ongoing process of professionalisation for those working in Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare and to raise the profile of careers in the sector. The Plan includes role profiles, a career framework and commitments to support early years educators to up-skill and develop their careers. It also includes commitments to reduce staff turnover, to attract graduates to enter and remain in the sector along with actions to actively promote careers in Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare.
Commitments in Nurturing Skills are organised under five "pillars" which are:
1. Establishing a career framework.
2. Raising qualification levels.
3. Developing a national Continuing Professional Development system.
4. Supporting recruitment, retention and diversity in the workforce; and
5. Moving towards regulation of the profession.
Under pillar 4, Nurturing Skills , amongst other forms of diversity, commitments to promote gender-balance in the workforce. This commitment is important in providing diverse role-models for children, and in ensuring strong connections between Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare services and the families and communities that they serve.
Whilst improving gender balance in the Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare sector is an important consideration at an EU level, currently no specific targets have been set.
Data collected by Pobal through the Annual Early Years Sector Profile showed 3% of the workforce was male in the years 2022/23 this is an increase of 1% from 2022.
