Latest news with #Maskey
Irish Independent
15-07-2025
- Health
- Irish Independent
Record number of special schools sanctioned in Dublin for upcoming school year, cabinet to hear
Earlier this year, Ms McEntee sanctioned 400 additional special classes across the country for the 2025/2026 school year, which will create spaces for 2,700 children with special educational needs (SENs). Last month, Ms McEntee told the Dáil that while 92pc of children identified as in need of school place had been allocated one, Dublin remained a challenge. 'We have an outline of all the counties and where there are larger numbers, there are clear pathways. The challenge we still have - I do not think anybody has denied this - is with Dublin,' the minister said in June. Today, the minister will inform cabinet that 400 new special classes will be provided for the upcoming school year and of these, 98 will be in Dublin and will provide places for an additional 588 students. Ms McEntee will also tell cabinet her plans to sanction school places for September 2026, with the vast majority of new classes to be sanctioned by the end of December this year. This, the minister will tell colleagues, will give parents greater certainty before the academic year and also provide schools with more time to plan and establish those new classes. Cabinet will also be given an update on progress on the Education Therapy Service, which will see therapists working in special schools. The minister will inform cabinet that a recruitment campaign will begin soon to recruit both Speech and Language Therapists and Occupational Therapists for the service. These therapists will be recruited by the National Council for Special Education and will be offered the same terms and conditions as therapists working in the HSE. Meanwhile, Minister of State Mary Butler will inform cabinet that the compensation scheme put in place following the Maskey Report into specialist services in South Kerry Camhs. Published in 2022, the Maskey review examined the treatment of children attending Camhs in south Kerry and found the care received by 240 young people did not meet the standards it should have. While significant harm was caused to 46 children and young people, the review found. A state scheme was set up in the aftermath of the report, which has had a very high level of uptake, cabinet will be told. A total of 230 applications have been made to the scheme. Of 83 of these applications which have gone to mediation so far, 74 have concluded in settlement. The remainder of the applications are awaiting a determination or are adjourned and expected to resume. Ms Butler will tell cabinet that the scheme has meant that children and families have experienced a resolution without having to go through an adversarial court process. A separate review by Dr Collette Halpin into the care of children in North Kerry CAMHS is now being finalised and the Department of Health is awaiting the submission of the final report of that review.
Irish Examiner
14-07-2025
- Business
- Irish Examiner
South Kerry Camhs: Most children affected by over-prescribing now seek compensation
Almost all of the 240 children and young people found to have suffered as a result of over-prescribing in South Kerry mental health services (Camhs) have sought compensation. Mary Butler, the mental health minister, will tell Cabinet on Tuesday that, as of June this year, 230 applications had been made to the State compensation scheme set up in the wake of the Maskey report. Of 83 applications which have gone to mediation, 74 have concluded in settlement. Ms Butler will bring forward a memo detailing the deficits in care identified in the cases of the 240 young people attending services in South Kerry between July 2016 and April 2021. A separate lookback review into the care of children in North Kerry is being finalised by consultant psychiatrist Colette Halpin. New special classes Helen McEntee, the education minister, will update Cabinet on 400 new special classes to be provided in the coming school year while the vast majority of new special classes for September 2026 is expected to be sanctioned by the end of December 2025. Trade mission plan Peter Burke, the enterprise minister, will seek Cabinet approval to make a Team Ireland trade mission an annual event as part of market diversification plans. This year's mission to Canada will include key political meetings with prime minister Mark Carney. Future trade missions may include locations such as India, China, and the United Arab Emirates. State spending report Jack Chambers, the public expenditure minister, will tell Cabinet that State spending for the first half of 2025 is up on last year by 6.5% and capital expenditure up 22.5%. He will also note an allocation of €1.15bn from the EU's Recovery and Resilience Facility, marking 38% of Ireland's overall allocation to date. Legal processes reform Jim O'Callaghan, the justice minister, will seek Cabinet approval for the general scheme of a bill to implement the Kelly report recommendations which would see further reforms in discovery, judicial review, and civil procedure in the courts and jurisdiction in the circuit and district courts. Mr O'Callaghan will also update ministers on draft amendments to personal injuries guidelines submitted by the Judicial Council which propose an across-the-board increase of 16.7% in compensation awards in line with inflation since 2021. Renewables proposal Darragh O'Brien, the transport and climate minister, will bring the Renewable Heat Obligation Bill, which will require suppliers of fossil fuels used for heat to demonstrate a proportion of the energy supplied is from a renewable source.
Belfast Telegraph
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Belfast Telegraph
Kneecap poster with sectarian slogans attached to Eleventh Night bonfire in Co Tyrone
The banner, which has a photograph of the west Belfast band as its backdrop has been cable tied to the pallets used to construct the bonfire in the Dungannon area. It features the heading 'Kill your local Kneecap', with a further line stating 'The only good one is a dead one'. In the centre of the poster is the acronym 'KAT', with 'Death to Hamas' and 'Destroy all Irish Republicans' also on the banner. It comes after MP Paul Maskey described similar sectarian displays on a bonfire in west Belfast as 'sickening'. The offensive banners have appeared on a pyre alongside Irish tricolours in the Highfield area of the city, with police confirming the banners are being treated as 'motivated by hate'. The 'KAT' slur has this time been painted onto one of the flags in block capital letters and hung above a sign that reads 'stop the boats'. Another sign with 'ATAT' and 'HYL' painted on it alongside a crosshair target has also been spotted at the site in addition to a sign that warns 'PSNI not welcome in loyalist Highfield'. Controversial 'migrant boat' bonfire is lit in Moygashel 'Such open and sickening displays of sectarian and racist hatred have absolutely no place in our society,' said Mr Maskey. "Political unionism must speak out and demand the removal of these offensive materials. 'Real leadership is needed, although it has been sorely lacking in these communities for some time. 'This is clearly a hate crime, and I have reported it to the PSNI.' Meanwhile, a derogatory message naming BBC broadcaster Stephen Nolan has also appeared on a bonfire in the Mount Vernon area of north Belfast. A hand-written message on a piece of cardboard has been placed on the pyre, while a Celtic jersey has also been attached to the same structure. The BBC has been approached for comment. A PSNI spokesperson said: 'Police have received reports regarding offensive signage placed on a bonfire in the Highfield area and in the Eastvale area of Dungannon. 'Enquiries into these matters, which are being treated as being motivated by hate, are ongoing.'
Irish Examiner
25-06-2025
- Health
- Irish Examiner
'Red flags' raised during review of children's mental health care in north Kerry
A review of children's mental health care in north Kerry that started in 2023 is still not finished, but so many 'red flags' were already raised that some children needed open disclosure meetings, the Oireachtas Health Committee heard on Wednesday. The review was announced following shocking findings in the Maskey review around mis-prescribing and harm to children in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (Camhs) in South Kerry. Minister of state for mental health Mary Butler was among the health ministers speaking to the committee on a range of financial and policy issues. In response to TD Michael Cahill, she said a senior clinician was appointed to run a review in North Kerry. 'It was hoped the review would be completed in a short period with Dr Colette Halpin, but unfortunately they realised it would take longer,' she said. 'Red flags were raised immediately and they had to undertake a robust review of all cases. The HSE's priority was that every file of every young person would get a thorough and robust review.' She added: 'During the review any young person whose file showed deficits in the care provided to them, they were called for an individual open disclosure meeting, so that's happening the whole way through.' A final report is being drafted, she explained, saying once the HSE receive that draft, additional work will be needed before it is published. Ms Butler also said that out of the 240 children affected by findings in the Maskey report, 228 applications were made to an non-adversarial compensation scheme by May. Some 222 payments have been made, and she welcomed that 'you're not dragging people through the courts' with this approach. University Hospital Kerry overcrowding Mr Cahill also asked about funding plans for University Hospital Kerry in light of ongoing overcrowding. He described cases of 'elderly patients falling off chairs' in the waiting room, and said at least one patient spent days on a trolley in the emergency department. Health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said while there are bed shortages, this is not the main problem, unlike in University Hospital Limerick. She called for tighter management of beds. 'There is in Kerry a new ward block which is at design feasibility stage in accordance with the acute inpatient capacity expansion plan,' she said. Some 160 new beds are planned nationally this year, and she said Caherciveen Community Hospital is in the mix for this. Health sector finances On the broader financial crisis in health, the committee heard HSE spending on agency staff rose every year for the last three years, reaching at least €734m last year. The spend last year was 7.6% higher than in 2023 just for agency staff funded through Department of Health funding streams. It was also 9% higher than 2022. Plans to hire agency workers and convert them into full-time or part-time staff, which would reduce costs, have also not progressed as quickly as first hoped. Ms Carroll MacNeill said there was a budget of €80m for conversion. 'That's partly offset by a €60m increase in pay where there's conversion, the conversion process really began in July 2024,' she said. Ms Carroll MacNeill told Labour TD Marie Sherlock that 512 agency staff have been hired by the HSE, the latest data she had showed. However, she added that this 'is 53% of the target'. Read More Cork and Kerry mental health services have fewer staff now than during staffing crisis two years ago
