Parliamentary questions

657. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the estimated full-year cost of providing free school meals for all pre-school children in the ECCE scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51336/26]

658. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the total annual cost of wages for childcare workers; the number of childcare workers that are in receipt of Government support; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51337/26]

659. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the number of children on waiting lists for public childcare places; the total cost of eliminating childcare waiting lists; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51338/26]

660. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality to provide an update on the ESF+ EIST funding scheme under the gender equality stream; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51432/26]

661. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if funding is available in her Department to fund the renovation of family resource centres, where a building has been identified to expand the service in a town (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51433/26]

662. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if funding is available in her Department to fund furniture, toys and outdoor equipment for early years services who have completed extensions to build capacity supporting them with high costs; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51434/26]

663. Deputy Robert O'Donoghue asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the governance arrangements relating to the board of a childcare committee (details supplied). [51459/26]

664. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality to provide the web link to her Department’s Q2 2026 published report of purchase orders/payments over €20,000, in line with the FOI model publication scheme requirements; to confirm the date on which this report was published; and, if it has not yet been published, the planned publication date. [51557/26]

665. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if the State-funded GLÓR Speech and Language Therapy Programme is intended to be available to all eligible children and adults with Down syndrome, regardless of membership of any organisation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51575/26]

666. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if organisations delivering the State-funded GLÓR Speech and Language Therapy Programme are permitted under the funding agreement to restrict access to the service to paid-up members or members whose subscriptions are not in arrears; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51576/26]

667. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality whether she is satisfied that children and adults with Down syndrome who are not members of any organisation have equitable access to the State-funded GLÓR Speech and Language Therapy Programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51577/26]

668. Deputy Naoise Ó Muirí asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality whether her Department has reviewed the enduring power of attorney process to assess how user-friendly it is and identify opportunities for simplification; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51586/26]

669. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality to examine the user experience of the enduring power of attorney application process; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51589/26]

670. Deputy Aidan Farrelly asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if her attention is drawn to the fact that the operation of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 is, in practice, creating significant barriers for adults with lifelong intellectual disabilities and their families in accessing basic services such as healthcare, dental treatment, and banking. [51592/26]

671. Deputy Aidan Farrelly asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she accepts that requiring formal decision-making representative orders in circumstances where capacity is clearly and permanently limited is placing an undue administrative and financial burden on ageing family carers, many of whom are already under severe financial pressure. [51593/26]

672. Deputy Aidan Farrelly asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the assessment that has been made of the impact of DMR application costs, legal complexity, and court-based processes for ordinary families seeking to continue long established caring arrangements for adult children with significant intellectual disabilities. [51594/26]

673. Deputy Aidan Farrelly asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality whether she will consider urgent reform to introduce a streamlined, affordable, and proportionate decision making pathway for adults with lifelong and profound intellectual disabilities; and whether she will address the lack of provision for successor decision-makers in the current system. [51596/26]

674. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality further to Parliamentary Question No. 704 of 30 June 2026, in which her Department confirmed that permanency planning data is recorded in individual care plans but is not collated or reported nationally by Tusla; the reason no national system exists to aggregate this data given its centrality to the welfare of childre…

675. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality further to Parliamentary Question Nos. 485 and 486 of 28 May 2026, if room closures, rather than the service overall closure has any impact on core funding payable; if in the case of a multi-room service where different rooms close at different times, almost on rotation, whether this breached core funding rules, gi…

676. Deputy Ciarán Ahern asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality whether core funding is paid for childcare capacity that is frequently though non-consecutively unavailable due to room closures; if her Department monitors cumulative room closures across a programme year; the safeguards in place to ensure that public funds are protected where services are unable to deliver their fu…

677. Deputy Ciarán Ahern asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality whether governance arrangements within city and county childcare committees would prevent a chairperson from simultaneously holding a senior management position with a childcare provider, and whether this would represent a conflict of interest; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51652/26]

678. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the total amount paid to date and the total amount committed, to Maynooth University or to individuals in support of the commissioning of research titled "Beyond Gender Quotas: Addressing the Political Exclusion of Traveller Women in Ireland", which was published recently; and if she will make a statement on the matte…

679. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she will confirm whether providers who have left core funding (details supplied) will be penalised; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51654/26]

680. Deputy Eoin Hayes asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the total cost of engagement with a company (details supplied) in each of the years 2020 to 2025, across her Department, by project, year and value; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51760/26]

681. Deputy Eoin Hayes asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the total cost of engagement with a company (details supplied) in each of the years 2020 to 2025, across her Department, by project, year and value; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51778/26]