Questions

1636. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the reason for the refusal of an application to the mother and baby institutions payment scheme (details supplied); the reason incomplete or deficient historical records are being relied upon as grounds for exclusion despite acknowledged issues with the accuracy of such records; to set out the review or independent appeal mechanism tha…

740. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality to list all schemes, funding programmes, capital funds, grant streams or other expenditure headings administered by her Department in 2025 and 2026 which result in allocations, awards, or spending that can be identified with a specific geographical location including county, district, town, or project site, to group these by funding str…

741. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality to provide the web link to her Department’s Q4 2025 published report of purchase orders/payments over €20,000, in line with the FOI model publication scheme requirements; the date on which this report was published; and if it has not yet been published, the planned publication date. [16562/26]

742. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality to confirm, in respect of her Department’s published quarterly reports of procurement-related payments or purchase orders over €20,000 (details supplied), where such reports are published in PDF format but originate from an Excel or similar spreadsheet file, that the underlying data was fully expanded and validated prior to conversion s…

350. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the amount allocated to the mother and baby institutions payment scheme; the total amount drawn down to date under the scheme; the total amount paid to eligible applicants; the number of persons deemed eligible for payment under the scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8973/26]

846. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the number of applications refused redress to the mother and baby home redress scheme which opened twenty two months ago; the reasons given for such refusals; the number of those refusals being appealed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5605/26]

2000. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the date on which a supplementary estimate or supplementary estimates was sought in respect of her Department’s Vote for each of the past ten years, and to the date in 2026; the gross and net amount involved in each case; and the Vote subheads to which each supplementary estimate related. [1786/26]

2001. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the value of expenditure originally allocated in the Estimates to specific programmes or staffing measures that could not be spent as planned within the year for each of the past five years; and whether such underspends were surrendered, carried forward, or reallocated to other areas within the Vote. [1807/26]

17. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality her Departments plans to expand and strengthen childcare provision in east Galway, including measures to increase capacity, support new providers, and address shortages of affordable early learning and care places for families across the region; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [73187/25]

227. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality further to Parliamentary Question No. 2148 of 4 November 2025 to the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science in which he confirmed that, although not required by statute, her Department voluntarily publishes its annual consultancy spending online in the interest of transparency and accessibility, if h…

753. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality to provide all claims managed by the State Claims Agency for which her Department is liable for the years 2020 to 2025, including the number of claims, the category of claim, the total cost per category, the number of active claims, the number of settled claims and the median payout per category. [65240/25]

754. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality to explain the drivers of the increase in State Claims Agency billing to her Department from approximately €250,000 in 2021 to over €2 million in 2025 (details supplied); and the risk factors, service failures, or litigation trends that account for this escalation. [65241/25]

755. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality whether her Department receives claim-level reports from the State Claims Agency detailing the category, cause, and cost of claims for which it is liable; and if so, whether she will publish anonymised versions of these reports to allow transparency on the risks driving expenditure. [65242/25]

756. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality whether her Department conducts root-cause analysis on claims that give rise to State Claims Agency costs; to identify if they stem from preventable failures for example, health and safety, service provision, accommodation standards, or administrative errors; and the actions taken as a result. [65244/25]

789. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality to provide the Department’s annual expenditure on State Claims Agency costs for the years 2020–2025. [66342/25]

884. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality to provide the HSE’s published annual targets and actual performance rates for the completion of assessments of need for children, for each of the past five years; and the percentage achievement rate in each year, in tabular form. [62786/25]

885. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the methodology used by the HSE when setting annual performance targets in its National Service Plan, in particular for disability and children’s services; if those targets are based on available staffing and capacity data; and if not, to explain the rationale for maintaining aspirational 100% targets despite sustained underperformance.…

123. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the measures being implemented to reduce assessment and intervention waiting times for children with additional needs in Galway east; and whether she will provide a clear schedule for improvements in access to therapy services and family supports under the Progressing Disability Services Programme. [61616/25]

174. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the current number of vacant posts within the children's disability network team (CDNT) in County Galway; the recruitment strategies in place to fill these roles; and the means by which she intends to ensure that children and families supported by CDNTs will not experience further delays in service access as a result of staffing shortfa…

1469. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she will provide details on the 700 additional childcare places announced in Budget 2026; where these places will be located; how they will be located; the timeline for their delivery; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [57838/25]

781. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if there are any technical, legal, operational, or policy constraints preventing her Department, when publishing quarterly reports of payments or purchase orders over €20,000, from including additional columns that link each payment to its underlying procurement process specifically tender/contract title; name and address of the awarded…

782. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if all contracting authorities under the aegis of her Department are in full compliance with Circular 05/2023, in particular the mandatory requirement to publish contract award notices for all contracts above €25,000; and if she will provide details of the monitoring or enforcement arrangements in place to ensure this requirement is met…

794. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if her Department and each body under its aegis discloses expenditure on external consultancy and adviser fees, by category (details supplied) in their annual report and or financial statements for each accounting year; if they provide direct web links to the most recent publications where these Section 1.5 disclosures are set out for h…

53. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she has plans to increase the capital threshold under the building blocks programme. [49911/25]

1011. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality to provide the web links to her Department’s Q1 2025 and Q2 2025 published reports of procurement-related payments or purchase orders over €20,000 (in line with the FOI model publication scheme requirements); to confirm whether these reports have been published in full and are publicly accessible; and to state the planned publication d…