Over €440,000 is being provided by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs to create a safe, supportive, and inclusive environment for LGBTI+ young people.

The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes has requested a further extension until June 26, the Department of Children has announced.

Katherine Zappone said that she is calling for an extra €150m per year over the next five years to intensify investment in the sector to make it affordable for families and children.

Half of the creches given a last-minute emergency payment as an insurance crisis threatened providers across the sector with closure, received less than €1,000.

On November 29, Gillian Powell, of The Haven Montessori, Bandon,Co Cork, went on RTÉ’s Liveline radio show and told the nation we needed to get back to the drawing board with our childcare system.

Restaurants and cafes have asked for a bailout from the Government similar to the one given to creches after it emerged that four of the main insurance providers are pulling out of the Irish hospitality market.

The Government has been criticised for making a “back-of-the-envelope” decision in response to the insurance crisis in childcare.

Creches are to be given a financial bailout after the Government bowed to pressure to intervene in the insurance crisis that is threatening childcare providers.

The 1,600 childcare providers insured with Ironshore Europe previously were on policies not "considered to be sustainable" for another insurer, according to Children's Minister Katherine Zappone.

The Government is willing to consider an emergency fund to prevent creches from closing because of a withdrawal of insurance cover.

Minister for Children Katherine Zappone has said that the Bon Secours order has an “ethical responsibility” to provide more funding for the exhumation and reburial of the remains of babies at the Tuam Mother and Baby home.

The Government cannot say when the process of exhuming the remains of hundreds of children buried in the former Tuam mother and baby home will begin.

Children's Minister Katherine Zappone says that past abuse in Scouting Ireland has ruined, and continues to ruin lives.

Scouting Ireland bosses have been slammed over their recent Oireachtas appearance.

Legal experts have said the Attorney General's advice to the Government that it is unconstitutional to give adopted people unrestricted access to their birth information is "incorrect".

Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone and her department are to be severely criticised for handing back almost €60m in State funding last year when 6,000 children were not allocated a social worker, the Irish Examiner can reveal.

The Department of Children and Youth Affairs has again defended its decision not to publish the report of the Collaborative Forum on Mother and Baby Homes.

Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone has rejected any suggestion that the decision not to publish the report of the Collaborative Forum on Mother and Baby Homes was due to its scathing criticism of the Government’s adoption tracing legislation.

Shops will be forced to pay for licences to sell tobacco and e-cigarette products and will be named and shamed and face potential fines if they fail to do so under new government plans.

Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone has acknowledged the “distress” experienced by adopted and illegally adopted people who are being refused access to personal information held by State bodies.

The new National Childcare Scheme will not open at the end of the month, as planned.

Frontline domestic and sexual violence services were “almost totally ignored” in the budget for the 6th year running, it has been claimed.

Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone must try to break the Anglo-American stranglehold on our work/life balance, writes Victoria White

Until under-investment in childcare is tackled, parents will be “left to pick up the pieces”, Early Childhood Ireland claims.

Nearly half of all childcare workers surveyed in new research say that they are actively looking for another job.

The 'Onehouse' in Galway brings together all the necessary medical, therapeutic and policing services for children in one location.

The Government has refused to give a date for the publication of a report from the long-delayed scoping exercise into the practice of illegal birth registrations.

Katherine Zappone was also told at the time that the centre wasn't registered with Tusla.

Via regulation and pricing, government will make informal arrangements in home settings unworkable, and will force babies as young as 24 weeks into creches, says Margaret Hickey

If the State is asking childminders and families using them to come out of essentially a black economy, there must be incentives, writes Juno McEnroe.

Childminders will face prosecution unless they sign up to strict standards of care and undergo garda vetting and home inspections.

Minister for Children, Katherine Zappone, has announced draft plans but also insists that the Government does not want to scare away minders with proposals.

Minister for Children Katherine Zappone announced draft plans this morning but also insisted the government does not want to scare away minders with the proposals.

Tusla is struggling to cope with a record level of inquiries from adopted people and natural parents looking for each other and their personal records.

Childminders will be subject to garda checks, home inspections, and minimum standards of care under fresh reforms to be announced for the unregulated sector.

It also emerged that the Department of Children and Youth Affairs is not aware of the identity of the 37 facilities.

Tusla could be given new powers to shut down sub-standard crèches “immediately” and to tell parents of any investigations they are currently at risk of knowing nothing about.