Claire Kerrane

The programme for Government commits, for the very first time, to providing capital investment to build or purchase State-owned childcare facilities to create additional capacity in areas where unmet need exists. I attended the launch of a childcare needs analysis in Boyle, County Roscommon, last Friday. Their analysis concludes that, in the Boyle catchment area, there are 20 childcare places per …

71. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the steps she is taking to retain early years educators in the sector, and therefore retain capacity; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32746/25]

I wish to ask the Minister about our early years educators. Staff turnover rates are high, particularly for private providers. We also have issues with capacity and retaining our early years educators. Of course, pay is a key issue. What areas is the Minister looking at to ensure we retain our early years educators in order to build on the capacity that is very much needed?

I thank the Minister. We have known for quite some time that pay is the single biggest issue. It has become and continues to be the main issue. While the work of the joint labour committee continues, we are now well into June and it unfortunately appears there is a wide gap between one side of the table and the other on the joint labour committee. SIPTU is seeking that providers must pay a minimum…

I would like to see the figures from previous JLCs on the amount of money brought forward by the Government in previous budgets and the amount of money that was actually spent on whatever the increase was. We will find quite a gap there, particularly when we look at the last increase and the length of time it took to achieve that. It was little or nothing in real terms. Regarding the JLC itself, …

73. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the actions she has taken to date to reduce the assessment of need waiting list; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32747/25]

My question follows on from the previous one. What actions is the Minister of State taking to reduce the ever growing waiting lists for assessment of need? We know from the HSE that it expects the waiting list will exceed 24,000 and will be closer to 25,000 by the end of this year.

I thank the Minister of State for her reply. She may not have them with her but is it possible to get figures? She gave percentage increases of 30% and 65% in the first few months of this year. If she has the figures for what that means in the numbers of assessments of need, that would be really helpful. While the Government continues to build public capacity which is very important, the Minister…

I thank the Minister of State. I presume and expect that, as we come to budget 2026, she will consider further capacity to reduce waiting lists further, in particular as the HSE is expected to exceed a waiting list of 24,000 by the end of the year, an incredible figure. We need to consider how much we can get from private capacity. In her final response, the Minister of State might speak about re…

Earlier in the week, I was in Gortaganny in west Roscommon to see the impact of a recent wildfire, the worst we had ever seen in our county. Having seen the damage first hand, I felt obliged to raise it with the Taoiseach. Over a thousand acres of bogland and forestry have been destroyed. I have written to the Minister of State, Deputy Healy-Rae, and the Minister, Deputy Heydon, to seek engagement…

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing this debate to proceed this evening. In 1996, the Department of Education amalgamated two schools in my constituency in Ballinasloe, County Galway, to become Scoil Chroí Naofa. This was done with the understanding of the Department of Education that a new school building would be provided. That was 29 years ago. There have been design teams appointed at s…

I thank the Minister of State for his response. It is welcome that the stage 2(b) submission made by the school is getting attention from the Department but what is important here is that we move things along as quickly as possible. After 29 years, the school and the entire school community have waited long enough. At this point, they have been through five principals while waiting for this school…

I thank the Minister for her statement and the documentation we have been provided with that details the elements of both Votes. I will focus my contribution on Vote 40 and raise some issues with what has been outlined and what the Minister outlined, much of which is welcome, particularly the increased budget for disability which we must acknowledge. It has been rising and that is welcome. That s…

Listening to the contributions made on the Government side of the House, most of them sound like commentators. The waiting list for assessments of need did not increase overnight. This has been an issue for many years and the demand for an assessment of need or for disability services has been rising consistently. This is absolutely nothing new. I pay tribute to Cara Darmody and her dad, Mark. At …

I begin by also paying tribute to Cara Darmody, who is here in the Public Gallery with her dad Mark. At 14 years of age, she has made a really valuable contribution to the debate around assessment of need and to the reality of the difficulties that individuals and families face when it comes to accessing autism and disability supports. She has been a voice for children and for parents, and I want …

I move: That Dáil Éireann: recognises: — the challenges that exist in the Early Years Sector, including for parents trying to afford and access childcare places and for educators when it comes to pay and terms and conditions; — the thousands of children on waiting lists for childcare places; — the serious deficiencies in capacity in our Childcare Sector; — the high costs of childcare that co…

I am stunned by the amendment the Minister has tabled to the motion. The motion seeks nothing more than for the Government to implement what the Minister outlined in the programme for Government and seeks further information and detail on the Government's commitment to our early years sector in the programme for Government, and the Minister could not even support that. The amendment refers to the …

I want to acknowledge the way the Minister went about making the rearrangements for this debate this morning and I thank her. Grace was 10 years old when she entered the foster care placement that is at the heart of the commission report. It was due to be a temporary placement in 1989. We cannot remind ourselves enough that she was a 10-year-old girl, a child, and she was without a voice. The fai…

It is totally unacceptable that in our State in 2025, children have no guarantee of an appropriate class place to meet their needs. An appropriate class place for children with additional needs will ensure that they can engage and fully participate in the classroom the same as any other child, and an appropriate class place must also be in the child's community. Why would we be busing our most vul…

I will raise a number of points about all of this as a TD who has been contacted by a number of parents who have received letters informing them that the surgery that took place on their very young children may not actually have been necessary. I will refer first to the timeline. On Thursday, 13 March, The Ditch published an article providing details of what it said was the external report on hip …

83. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to respond to the finding of the final substantive report of the commission of investigation into certain matters relative to a disability service in the south east and related matters, also known as the Farrelly commission, volumes 1 and 2; and the planned next steps in response. [21193/25]

I ask the Minister to respond to the report of the Farrelly commission into what has usually been termed the Grace case. More importantly, I want to know what the Minister's next steps will be and what she plans to do in response. I appreciate that much of this is HSE-related and there are a lot of questions for the HSE to answer. We are reminded that when Grace was failed in the first instance, s…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire. There was something really stark in the response to the report's publication. Usually, we would be shocked by such failures and grave injustices but on the back of this report's publication, we saw widespread disbelief and disappointment concerning what the report was all about. It took a very long time to conclude the report - eight years - and it has cost millions …

I appreciate the steps the Minister has taken and the work that will be undertaken on the back of the report specific to this case, and rightly so, as that needs to be done, but I also want to impress on the Minister the need to look at the care system today. The Children's Residential and Aftercare Voluntary Association has repeatedly called for a review of Ireland's care system. It has raised re…

87. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to provide an update on ongoing pay talks for early years educators. [21194/25]