Claire Kerrane

I ask for an update on the ongoing talks on pay, particularly regarding the €45 million announced in budget 2025 that will be ring-fenced for pay for our early years educators.

This is an issue I have raised on a number of occasions with the Minister. I welcome the fact she has met and engaged with the JLC and that she has gone further than that in asking it to utilise the €45 million because it is key we improve pay for the early years educators. We know staff turnover in the early years sector is really high. I got a breakdown, county by county. The annual turnover in…

The Minister will be aware SIPTU is raising concerns about the fact the talks have been ongoing for a number of months and it feels there is a gap between the providers and those representing the early years educators and managers in the childcare settings. It is really important. It is good we have had the opportunity here this evening to make that call and to ask for the joint labour committee t…

I wish to ask the Minister about the cost of childcare, which remains very high for a lot of parents and families. There is a commitment in the programme for Government to reduce the cost of childcare. How does the Minister intend to go about this and does she have a timeframe in mind for reducing the costs for families?

Does the Minister envisage investing more in the national childcare scheme to bring down the costs directly for parents? This is what Sinn Féin had proposed with our €10 per day plan, which is around €200 per month. This is using what is there with the current mechanism as the quickest way to bring down the costs of childcare. While the Government repeatedly tells us that the costs of childcare ha…

In our own proposal on the €200 per month, we looked at using the national childcare scheme and expanding it to childminders. That would really assist in building capacity in the sector because for many parents, the choice is no longer there. If they want to get the subsidy and need help in affording childcare, they have to look to the formal setting whereas in rural areas in particular, a local c…

I listened to the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, speak. He said that you cannot disrupt procedures and then talk about the value of order and procedure. I can speak to the value of order because in the five years I have been in this House, I have never disrupted anyone. I have never spoken over anyone and have never raised my voice. Even while listening to non-answers to questions I ask, I do not disru…

I acknowledge the work of the Minister and his Department on this scheme. Along with many colleagues, I have brought several queries to the Minister and he has responded in a timely manner, which I acknowledge. Every Member wants schemes like the humanitarian assistance scheme to work for people who deserve them, who are entitled to them and who have suffered, in this case, as the result of a stor…

I also welcome this legislation and I commend the Minister on bringing it forward. It is an issue that has been raised in here and out in the real world for a number of years. I also take the opportunity to pay tribute to John O'Meara and his family for their work and the role they have taken in making sure that we got to this day and that this legislation is progressed. As we speak on this import…

I wish to raise the sudden closure of the humanitarian assistance scheme, which has now locked out many people seeking support following Storm Éowyn. This was not advertised or publicised. Offices are turning people with forms away. The ESB will not show any goodwill or common decency - it is going ahead with charging people for a service they did not have. I am disappointed the Government as the …

The current wind energy guidelines are now 19 years old. Last year, the Taoiseach promised that the new updated guidelines would be published by the end of 2024 but the date is now quarter 1 of 2025. At the same time, rural communities are being forced to battle with large companies, sometimes after repeated planning permissions are submitted. We have a particular issue in south Roscommon and nort…

I will raise a number of issues where, primarily, women are impacted by Government policy. I will start almost where the Minister started, that is, on affordable childcare. No matter how many times the Government says childcare costs have been cut by 50%, it does not make it true. A survey last year put monthly childcare in various counties at over €600, €800 and €1,100. In the context of the fee …

First, by way of background, the accident and emergency department in Roscommon was closed in 2011. On the back of that, a commitment was made that there would need to be much better ambulance cover for Roscommon because we are farther away from the next nearest emergency department. Both Fine Gael, which was in office at the time, and the HSE committed to ensure there would be advanced life suppo…

If patient demand for NAS services continues to rise, with nearly 430,000 urgent and emergency calls received last year, representing a year-on-year rise in volume of 8%, why then has the National Ambulance Service stopped training advanced paramedics? Why has it stopped the privileging courses? Fully qualified advanced paramedics who have trained elsewhere, some I understand in the Defence Forces…

As I rise to speak on statements on policing and community safety, I take the opportunity to remember an Independent councillor, Councillor Anthony Waldron, who died suddenly last month. Councillor Waldron had established the Enough is Enough campaign against rural crime in County Roscommon and it was an issue I had discussed with him at a number of events he held. I remember him here this evening…

Yesterday, I attended a briefing by Cared Ireland. It highlighted the long-running crisis in care, supports and services for people with eating disorders. We heard directly from a mother whose young teenage daughter is about to age out of the very small supports she has been getting as a child. These are supports that have, in her mother's words, kept her alive. We also heard from a mother whose d…

I congratulate the Minister on her appointment. As my party's spokesperson on children, I look forward to working with her. Before I begin, I take this opportunity to mention an issue I have raised a number of times regarding the recent storm and its impact on people with electric wheelchairs and those who are reliant on electric beds and certain medical devices. Unfortunately, I feel I am hittin…

110. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if she will bring forward the review into the mother and baby institutions payment scheme due to be completed next year; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8179/25]

I ask the Minister about the mother and baby institutions payment scheme, the review due to take place by mid-2026 and the issues raised, particularly around those excluded from that scheme. Will the Minister bring forward that review?

I thank the Minister for that. There are a couple issues here I had raised with the Minister's predecessor in terms of the scheme. The number of applicants applying and the number of payments issued to date have been quite low. That is dependent on the number applying, so clearly more work needs to be done on that messaging and communication. I know that is being done abroad but it needs to be loo…

I thank the Minister. On the figures, I chaired the committee meeting last year in which Revised Estimates were gone through and there was an underspend of €158 million. It was listed as a saving and it was money brought back in this scheme. In fairness, it was expected a lot more would apply in the first year and that was fair enough. If there is such an underspend of the €100 million that is the…

112. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the total number of children on waiting lists for an assessment of needs; the average waiting time; the measures she intends to take to tackle these waiting lists for children; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8180/25]

Before asking this question, I wish the Minister of State well in her new role because I did not have an opportunity to do so earlier. This question is to ask the Minister of State about the number of children on waiting lists for assessments of needs, the average waiting time for the children on the waiting lists and, more importantly, I suppose, the measures she intends to take to tackle these v…

On the very high figure of more than 14,000 children and the demand increase, this is fine and part of it, of course, is related to population. I would not say, though, that part of it is parents exploring all options for their children, particularly if they can go through the CDNTs without an assessment of need. We must be really careful in terms of the things we say concerning this matter becaus…

I thank the Minister of State for the reply. Regarding those on the waiting lists, and this is an issue I have written to the Minister of State about, I take the opportunity to flag a communication issued by the HSE to parents with a child or children on the waiting lists for assessments of needs in the last couple of weeks. It told parents that if they did not respond to say their child still wan…