Parliamentary questions

2488. Deputy Sinéad Gibney asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if her Department has engaged with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science on ensuring that enough early years educators are trained and qualified to meet the need for early years education; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43608/25]

2489. Deputy Sinéad Gibney asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if her Department keeps statistics on the opening and closure of early years education and childcare settings; and if she will provide these figures broken down monthly, by local authority, and by capacity, for the past three years, in tabular form. [43609/25]

2490. Deputy Sinéad Gibney asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the number of Irish-medium early years services in operation, by local authority and capacity, in tabular form. [43610/25]

2491. Deputy Sinéad Gibney asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the number of full time equivalents directly employed by her Department, broken down by grade, in tabular form. [43653/25]

2492. Deputy Sinéad Gibney asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality whether her Department has a policy or goal of better insourcing of IT requirements and needs of the Department for better cybersecurity, autonomy, and crisis management; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43671/25]

2493. Deputy Sinéad Gibney asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality to provide an update on the status of respite funding for adults with intellectual disabilities and autism in counties Carlow and Kilkenny and specifically the status of promised funding to SOS Kilkenny; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43772/25]

2494. Deputy Barry Heneghan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she will consider the recommendations put forward by an organisation (details supplied) in its pre-budget submission 2026, including the need to expand access to therapeutic supports for children in care, review the aftercare allowance, improve financial recognition for foster carers; and if she will make a sta…

2495. Deputy Barry Heneghan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she will examine the possibility of extending the back to school clothing and footwear allowance to all children in State care by removing the means testing requirement for foster families; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43817/25]

2496. Deputy Barry Heneghan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she will consider supporting the introduction of a 10% candidate quota for people with disabilities on party ballots, in line with the Programme for Government’s commitments to improve equality and political participation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43818/25]

2497. Deputy Shónagh Ní Raghallaigh asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality whether she plans to sanction the final €5 million in funding needed to complete a complex (details supplied) which would, upon completion, serve to considerably reduce waiting times for assessments and therapies for children with disabilities.; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43837/25]

2498. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if an annual €3 million funding uplift can be provided to an organisation (details supplied) starting in 2026 on the grant register to address their current funding deficit position and stop the escalating financial losses on funded services; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43893/25]

2499. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she will consider putting in place an annual inflationary increase on section 56 funding as was the practice prior to the 2008 financial crash which would assist certain organisations that support children (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43896/25]

2500. Deputy Joanna Byrne asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she plans to provide a community neuro-rehabilitation team in the Dublin and north-east region noting that they do not currently have one. [43899/25]

2501. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality to confirm that consideration would be given to reforming the core funding model for childcare centres, to provide additional funding for the scheme, to remove the cap on funding for childcare providers which has been reduced from €500,000 to €450,000, which may discourage childcare providers from continuing in the sc…

2502. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she will outline any proposed funding opportunities for community childcare buildings to improve their facilities given current funding seems to only allow for extensions rather than improvements. [43915/25]

2503. Deputy Mark Wall asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the estimated cost of increasing foster care allowance rates by €15 or €25, or alternatively index linking it to inflation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44052/25]

2504. Deputy Mark Wall asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the estimated cost of increasing the aftercare allowance to the same rate as foster care allowance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44053/25]

2505. Deputy Mark Wall asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she will provide a breakdown of the current funding streams for childcare; the breakdown of the additional funding provided in Budget 2025, in tabular form; the expected funding required in 2026 to maintain existing levels of service; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44054/25]

2506. Deputy Mark Wall asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the additional funding required to reduce the costs of childcare for parents to respectively €50 per week or €200 per month; to provide a breakdown of the additional allocations required, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44055/25]

2507. Deputy Mark Wall asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the additional funding required to increase funding for the ECCE scheme by 10%; if she will provide a breakdown of those proposed new funding levels, in tabular form; when funding for ECCE was last increased; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44056/25]

2508. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the timeframe for when additional funding will be provided for a service (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44067/25]

2509. Deputy Sinéad Gibney asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she will consider collecting and publishing data on the average number of overnight respite beds and a record of respite bed waiting lists for greater transparency in relation to available respite resources; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44116/25]

2510. Deputy Sinéad Gibney asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she will provide an update on the status of respite funding for adults with intellectual disabilities and autism in Dublin Rathdown. [44117/25]

2511. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she or her Department plan to alter the current departmental description of autism spectrum disorder as an umbrella term, with increased additional needs being included in this area over time; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44168/25]

2512. Deputy Barry Heneghan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she will consider extending paid maternity leave or increasing parents' leave as an interim measure to support working families with infants under one year-of-age, given the current gap in childcare availability for this age group; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44191/25]