Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh – Priority Questions
1. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she will carry out a review of the regulations for childminders in Q1 of 2026; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [71885/25]
View answerI raise again the regulations put in place for some time now for childminders and the many issues they are facing. We know about 150 childminders out of 14,000 or 15,000 have registered with Tusla, which is a small amount. Will the review of the regulations take place early in the new year?
As the Deputy is aware, the phase 1 report of the early years action plan, Shaping the Future, was published yesterday. It makes clear that childminding remains central to the Government's vision for the future of early learning and care and school-age childcare. The national action plan for childminding 2021-2028 sets out a pathway for the extension of regulation and supports to childminders. Implementation of that plan will continue under Shaping the Future, as I said at yesterday’s launch. The regulation of childminding services is critical to the safeguarding of children. I believe we all agree on that.
The childminding-specific regulations, which came into effect in September 2024, are designed to be proportionate and appropriate to the home and family setting in which childminders work. The route to registration under the new regulations requires childminders to undertake a short pre-registration training course as well as meet certain regulatory requirements, including Garda vetting, proof of insurance, first aid certification and child safeguarding training. We are now in a three-year transition period to September 2027, during which childminders are being encouraged and supported to register but registration is not yet mandatory. This phased approach aims to facilitate the largest possible number of childminders to enter the regulated sector and sphere of quality assurance and access Government subsidies, while also recognising the time and supports required for childminders to learn about and prepare for registration.
The Department has committed to undertake a review of the initial implementation of the childminding-specific regulations during the transition period. The review will include consultation with childminders and other stakeholders.
It will provide an important opportunity to learn lessons from initial experiences with the regulations.
As I have said previously, the review will commence in 2026. The timing of the review is crucial. In addition to hearing from childminders who have not yet registered, it is important that the review adequately captures and benefits from the experiences of those who have registered, been through the registration process and operated within the new regulations.
September 2025 marked the end of the first full year since the introduction of the regulations. Those childminders who have registered need time to thoroughly test the regulations in practice. The number of childminders who have registered will impact upon the thoroughness of this testing also. We are in a three-year process from the introduction of the regulations to the end of the transition period.
I am sure the Minister will agree that the fact that just 150 childminders to date have registered with Tusla should be causing concern. It is a tiny number compared with the overall number of childminders out there. Childminding Ireland has been excellent in its engagement on issues with the regulations. One such issue I have mentioned to the Minister before is the regulation regarding having a close contact, that is, a person who will be available at all times. That is next to near impossible. Some of the regulations are unworkable, like that one. I have met childminders and been in their homes and the big issue I am coming across relates to the inspections. They are being asked to register with Tusla but they have no idea what those inspections will look like. These are their family homes and, at the very least, they deserve clarity in that regard. Many of us would not like a person coming in and going around our homes. They need clarity as to what the inspection regime will look like. They should get that clarity.
I wish to be clear: childminders are an incredible resource in the entire system. I know the value of them and they are particularly important in rural areas, like my area. We want childminders to be fully engaged but we also need them to be registered because we need regulation. I think the House is unanimous on that. We are within the three-year timeframe now and I have committed to carrying out a review, which will take place in 2026. It will take place as early as I possibly can and as close to quarter 1 as possible. I know that was in the Deputy’s original question. It will be as close to that as possible. It is to give the maximum benefit to those who have registered and those who will register within that period or timeframe. I hear many of the queries the Deputy has raised. I hear them too. There will be inspections, however. While not comparing like for like, anyone who has a family property and runs a bed and breakfast is subject to inspection in order to be registered with Fáilte Ireland. Childminders will have to be subject to inspections, but I hear what the Deputy is saying when it comes to how that is managed and what form the inspection will take.
We have to be clear; I have not met a childminder who has an issue with regulations. Most of them have first aid training, insurance and Garda vetting. They have much of it in place for so many years already. That is not the issue. Rather, the issue lies with the inspections. Inspections will form part of the regulations – we all know that – but it is about what those inspections will look like and the rooms in the family home the inspector will go into. These are details that childminders should have before and while they are registering with Tusla. Clarification like that would probably increase the numbers registering with Tusla because they are being asked to register without knowing the ins and outs of what they are signing up to. That is a mistake and it is probably why we only have 150 registered out of tens of thousands of childminders in this State. That should cause concern. I welcome that the Minister said the review will be as close as possible to quarter 1 of 2026. I welcome that because I am not making it up - I hope the Minister takes me at my word - that childminders are leaving the sector. We cannot afford to lose them. We need that review as quickly as possible in the new year.
I absolutely understand the anxiety that is out there. Change is never comfortable and I absolutely accept that. I hear it myself when I engage on the ground. I absolutely accept the Deputy's bona fides in this regard too. She has raised this issue on a number of occasions. I am happy to engage further. I said I would engage prior to the review and I will do that. I will hold the review as close to quarter 1 of 2026 as I can, but I will not give a firm date because things and timeframes can change. It is my intention to do it as early as we possibly can. I want childminders to remain within the system. They are an incredibly valuable resource. Many issues have been raised. For example, the Deputy raised the issue in respect of properties and all of that. I am conscious of that, but it does not fall within my gift. Rather, it falls to the Department of housing but I am also engaging in that regard. I am conscious of the issues that are there. We will begin the review as quickly as possible. We have until 2027 for the complete registration.
2. Deputy Mark Wall asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if her Department will provide additional and multiannual funding for therapeutic and counselling supports, such as play therapy, currently provided in family resource centres; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [73394/25]
View answerWill the Minister and her Department provide additional and multi-annual funding for therapeutic and counselling supports, such as play therapy? Will the Minister make a statement on it?
Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, administers funding for therapeutic and counselling supports. In 2024, Tusla’s total funding for family support service counselling was €8.375 million. A total of 90 family resource centres received €1.664 million. With regard to additional funding, in 2025 the Department secured the mainstreaming of an additional €1.5 million for counselling, psychotherapy and therapeutic services to children and young people to reduce waiting lists for community-based counselling services. This was previously funded as a pilot under the Dormant Accounts Fund in 2023 and 2024 and it is in addition to the yearly funding for family support services counselling I have already spoken about.
In 2025, €292,500 of this additional €1.5 million funding was allocated to 30 family resource centres to allow them to continue their important work of providing counselling and wider therapeutic services, such as play therapy and creative arts therapy, in the community. The additional funding helps to address unmet need and reduce waiting lists for community-based counselling services.
Funding for counselling services reflects the Government’s recognition of the critical work being done every day by local community-based services. I am proud to support their work and delighted that this additional investment of €1.5 million is now part of the mainstream funding provision through Tusla. This funding enables family resource centres and other family support service counselling services to provide counselling and therapeutic services at no cost or low cost for the communities they serve.
In 2024, clinical and therapeutic lead posts were established in eight family resource centres around the country to ensure there is a clinical and therapeutic lead in all six Tusla regions. I understand that this initiative is working well. The focus of the role includes providing clinical leadership, ensuring that quality services are developed and adapted to meet emerging and presenting needs in the region, and monitoring clinical practice and governance standards. Funding for the clinical and therapeutic lead posts continued in 2025 and I have also secured funding for 2026.
As the Deputy will be aware, the family resource centre programme has expanded from 121 to 126 members.
I thank the Minister for her reply. We can all agree, as we have done previously, that great work is being done by all the family resource centres. The Minister has, in fairness, expanded and created a number of new centres. The problem I am hearing is that the references and referrals coming from many organisations, such as Tusla, the HSE, CAMHS and local authorities, are overloading family resource centres and they are having great difficulty in meeting the demand that is there. We all know the benefits of play therapy and other counselling services. Is the Minister aware of all the referrals that are coming from the various organisations? Are they included in the figures she has just given the Dáil? Will she give multi-annual funding to our family resource centres to ensure they can cope with the additional demand they are facing at the moment? It is quite traumatic for them to have to turn people away from the doors when they are getting referrals. That is the unfortunate consequence of not having the multi-annual funding that should be available for them. That is the basis of my question, that is, the number of referrals they are getting from Government and non-Government organisations. Maybe the Minister can comment on that.
I wish to conclude on the point about the family resource centres first. The Deputy is correct; we are unanimous about the importance of those family resource centres and the whole myriad of services, including those the Deputy outlined, they provide. The programme has expanded from 121 to 126 members this year. The Deputy will be aware that a further ten centres will be added in 2026. I am pleased that I secured the funding for those additional ten centres in budget 2026. Mental health services are within the gift of another Department. This is just an additional support we are providing through the family resource centres. It is important that we recognise that and there is clarity around that. Mental health services fall within the remit of my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Mary Butler. The total allocation for mental health services for 2026 will be almost €1.6 billion. It is quite a considerable level. It is record funding, in fact. It is an increase in funding for the sixth year in a row. I wish to acknowledge the work of the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, in that regard. There are other avenues to support as well.
I appreciate that.
I am highlighting this today because I have been speaking to a number of family resource centres. The number of referrals they are getting is causing complications for the services they are offering. I am highlighting this today to make the Minister, Deputy Foley, and the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, aware of the need for additional resources in our family resource centres. They have now come to a situation where there is an overload on what they can provide.
The other point is the multiannual funding. They need to know what counsellors and therapists they can actually provide for the communities they work in. This is the issue that many of them have raised with me. Again I wish to put on the record that every euro spent is a very welcome euro for the communities they serve. So many of the family resource centres are up against it and on the coalface of so many community and social issues at the moment. I highlight the need for multiannual funding to ensure that our family resource services can survive and grow. That is the whole issue we are trying to highlight today.
I appreciate the Deputy highlighting it. It is highlighted to me also as I visit the family resource centres. It is a testament to the vision of the family resource centres that they are happy to step in when there is a need within a community. They do it expertly, they do it professionally and they do it without any difficulty really. That is to their credit. They always step up. I have never made any secret of the fact that I am an enormous fan of the family resource centres.
The entire budget for Tusla counselling services is over €8.3 million. The additional €1.5 million that has been mainstreamed from the Dormant Accounts Fund in 2023 and 2024 has been a great addition to us. Being able to mainstream that is an additional resource. I will continue to consult the Minister of State, Deputy Butler. She has successfully increased the budget for the entirety of mental health services for six years in a row - to over €1.6 billion now - and great credit is due to her for that. There is an opportunity for us to engage further on it.
3. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality whether she will intervene to prevent the closure of homeless prevention services in an organisation (details supplied) in Cork in mid-January; and to ensure the service does not cease in providing vital community support to homeless young people through social care and work [73584/25]
View answerWill the Minister give a commitment to intervene to prevent the closure in mid-January of a homeless prevention service in Cork, and to ensure the service does not cease to provide vital community support to homeless young people through social care work?
I appreciate the Deputy raising this question. I have been informed, and it is my understanding, that the services managed by Tusla's Liberty Street House are not being curtailed. This is the information that has been given to me. Tusla is undertaking a reform programme that will continue to meet the needs of service users of Liberty Street House. The integration of services will mean that the services provided within Liberty Street House will align under the proposed structures of the front door teams. Front door teams are a feature of the new Tusla referral and service user management process that will ensure each referral is assessed and addressed by the appropriate experts. Staff will work as part of multidisciplinary teams to ensure a range of professionals with different skill sets in the area of social work and therapeutic services are available to respond to the needs of children, young people and families in the right way at the right time.
The preventive aspect of work undertaken in the Liberty Street House services will align with family support and safety and welfare structures. All relevant cases in Liberty Street House services will continue to be worked on with the newly aligned networks in 2026. Liberty Street House services provide a domestic violence and abuse support service. Under the reform programme the focus will move towards the impact of domestic violence, particularly on children, bringing in expertise developed in Liberty Street House to the front door teams across networks. Equally, Liberty Street House staff who have a developed skill set in working with teenagers will continue to utilise these skills in their alignment within the front door teams.
Tusla's structural reform will bring opportunities to young people and families that Liberty Street House services work with. It will also deliver an integrative response of early intervention, family support and child welfare. Liberty Street House has responded to these needs in myriad ways since it opened. I appreciate the work done by the team in Liberty Street House on behalf of the State and local government.
I thank the Minister for the update but the information I have is that Liberty Street House will be out of staff by mid-January and is currently not recruiting. I understand it has not replaced the staff who have left, been redeployed or have retired. I want the Minister to be right, and I hope she is right, in what she has just said here. Liberty Street House has been operating very successfully for the last two decades in providing really vital services for young people who are at risk of homelessness. It is said now that it is being amalgamated with Tusla's front door teams. At one stage Liberty Street House was helping over 200 young people. Maybe the Minister's information is more correct but I am telling her, from the people who work on the ground, that the staff will be gone by mid-January. If the Minister is saying that is not the case, we need clarity on the matter. This is a vital service for young people at risk of homelessness.
I appreciate the Deputy raising this. My information is that the services provided by Liberty Street House are not being curtailed. Indeed, the cases will continue right throughout 2026. The new model of practice is to ensure that all services are available through multidisciplinary teams at the time when they are needed, in the one place at the right time. I am very happy for the Deputy to bring to me any specific information that he might not be in a position to share on the floor of the House. I am very happy to look at that and revert to the Deputy. It is my understanding, as I have said, that the services are not being curtailed. The new vision of service, which I think is a good vision of service, means that when a person presents themselves there is a single opportunity for all of the different supports they might need to be made available at that time from the front door teams. The front door teams approach emphasises the notion that there is no wrong door, that there is a single point of access, and that whatever supports the person requires are presented and available to him or her at that given time.
I have two worries on foot of the Minister's comments. She is saying that the services are being integrated. Is Liberty Street House being closed down? Liberty Street House provides a service to young people who are at risk of homelessness and who enter homelessness. I am looking for a commitment now that this will not be closed down. The information I have is from people who are in the know. They have told me that no additional staff have been taken on to replace those who have left through retirements and redeployments, and that the few who remain will be gone by the middle or end of January. The Minister talks about integrating services, which sounds great, but I am worried about the children who are not as severely at risk, such as a young person who is at risk of homelessness. A young person who is sleeping on the streets needs intervention, 100%, but there is no point in a young person who is at risk of becoming homeless ending up on the streets too. We need both types of children to be looked after. I am worried, in light of what is being proposed now, that Tusla is going down a different road. We need to save Liberty Street House.
The information that has been given to me is that all the services the Deputy has outlined, which are really important intervention services, are not being curtailed and that all cases will continue into 2026. It is a very valuable service that is being provided. It is important that whatever supports are required within the family structure for individuals, for young people or for older people are available at a given time, at the right time and in the right place. My information is that nothing is being curtailed and that everything is continuing in terms of services in 2026. If there is something different that the Deputy wants to bring to me, I will be more than happy - sincerely - to engage further with him on the matter. I will happily do that with the Deputy at the beginning of the year if that is what he wishes.
Go raibh maith agat.
4. Deputy Liam Quaide asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she has completed an equality and human rights impact assessment of her Department's practice of locating people with intellectual and other disabilities in excess of 100 km from home in residential services for prolonged periods of time, and of her Department's failure to maintain statistics on these distances given their clear breach of the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [72512/25]
View answerHas the Minister undertaken an equality and human rights impact assessment of the Department's practice of locating people with intellectual and similar disabilities in excess of 100 km from their home in residential services for prolonged periods of time? Will she comment on her Department's failure to maintain even broad-brush statistics on these distances given their clear breach of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD, which enshrines the right of community living for people with a disability?
I thank the Deputy for raising this question and providing me with an opportunity to speak on this matter. The Government is committed to supporting people with disabilities through the implementation of the UNCRPD.
To further the work in this area the Department of Children, Disability and Equality has recently published the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030. This includes commitments to promote independent living and active participation and supports our obligations under Article 19 of the UNCRPD. Demand for residential placements is very high for a number of reasons, including demographic challenges associated with the increase in the number of people living with a disability, changing needs and the increase in age profile of those in existing placements.
The HSE advises that while every effort is made by the referring agency to ensure the provision of residential services is close to family and natural supports, taking will and preference into account, there are multiple important factors to be considered simultaneously in order to achieve a residential placement that will best meet the unique and assessed needs and requirements of each individual. Prior to placement, consultation with the individual and their family is undertaken and consent is documented as part of the decision-making process. A comprehensive needs assessment is undertaken by the multidisciplinary team to determine suitability and impact on the individual and their family. Funded placement reviews focus on areas such as the individual’s well-being and continuity of supports, in accordance with the national standards and Health Act regulations.
The HSE advises that each case is reviewed regularly where a transition closer to home is the will and preference of the individual. These actions are aligned with the principles of the UNCRPD and the HSE’s commitment to equality and human rights. In recognition of the impact that distance can have on people and their loved ones, HSE south west has recently engaged with a private provider to purchase houses in Cork to create capacity in order for people to be repatriated to their home county and create additional new placements. HSE mid-west also confirms it is endeavouring to offer individuals the option of living in residential services closer to their communities through capacity building.
I thank the Minister of State for her response. It is very concerning to hear of the rapidly increasing investment by her Department in privately outsourced residential services for people with disabilities. In many cases a person will move into such a service in the context of a crisis. The HSE will be under pressure to find any place for the person. The residential service they are offered will quite likely be located extremely far from home and sometimes in quite an isolated setting that is not joined up to community or other supports that would allow a person to grow towards increasing independence, connection and integration. We have a scenario where very wealthy private companies are amassing large sums of money with which they are building up significant property portfolios while section 38 and 39 services are struggling to keep the lights on and sometimes paying rent on properties. This is a disjointed, costly and reactive way to provide these services. When will the Government devise a national disability service plan that is implemented through multiannual funding and when will it move away from private outsourcing, which comes with such a human cost to the person with a disability as well as such a financial cost to the State?
I thank the Deputy. While the chief inspector of social services within HIQA does not have the remit to look at the specific issue of an individual’s distance from their original home, where inspectors see that residents are away from their support network or having to travel extended distances to their family, work or school, it is addressed in inspection reports under regulation 9 on residents’ rights and regulation 13 on general welfare and development.
On private and not-for-profit providers, the proportion of residential placements for people with disabilities provided by for-profit providers has increased in recent years. This has been in response to demand for new residential places. We have 1,402 residential placements being provided by private providers. This constitutes 15% of the total of all placements and represents an increase of 3% since December 2023, so while it is rising it is rising at 3% over two years.
I thank the Minister of State. The Minister said in a recent budget Estimate session that she wants to move away from private outsourcing but the proportion of money the Department is spending on these services has nearly doubled over the past four years. While the Minister is saying one thing, her Department's actions are the opposite. I can understand the ongoing reliance on these providers but this will not change as long as the Department is devoid of a plan for residential, vocational and community support services that are integrated with each other in each community. We need a service plan for disability akin to A Vision for Change. That document had key staffing targets per mental health service and per head of population. We have a very haphazard pattern of disability services in different areas based, essentially, on a tradition of the service being in that territory. When is the Department going to provide data - even general data - on the distance between a disabled person's house and their community of origin? This is a human rights issue and data on it should be recorded.
On data, I wish to be clear that the cost of care is completely dependent on the level of complexity and the support required. It is imperative to note that as a result, cost is not a reflection of performance and rather is indicative of individualised care needs. What is most important here is the person with the care need at the heart of this. The Deputy has the data on the average cost of residential places. That data is published and publicly available. The Department of Children, Disability and Equality's spending review 2025 contains this information, which is publicly available on our website. It should be noted these average costs are derived from a relatively small sample of placements from 2024 because there is a relatively small sample of placements in existence.
