Results 141-160 of 5,220 for in 'Written Answers' speaker:Patrick O'Donovan

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Accommodation (18 Jun 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: I, together with Minister O’Brien brought an updated memo for information to Government in May. This memo noted their intention to expedite a legal change to examine the duration of student accommodation contracts to reflect the academic year accommodation requirements, traditionally September to May annually, unless a student initiates a request for an extended 51 week contract. ...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (13 Jun 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: In April of this year, an Taoiseach and I announced €100m in additional capital under the National Development Plan that will support delivery of over 1,000 new and additional student beds, with delivery commencing in the 2025/2026 academic year. This allocation enables the activation of Phase 1 of UCD’s stalled student accommodation project for delivery of 493 student beds...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Accommodation (13 Jun 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: The first National Student Accommodation Strategy was launched in July 2017. It runs until 2024, with a target of 21,000 additional Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) beds to be delivered. Achievement of this target has been impacted by subsequent events including Brexit, Covid-19 and the outbreak of war in Ukraine. Housing for All was launched in September 2021 which called for...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: EU Meetings (12 Jun 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: Since June 2020, there have been 19 formal and 15 informal Council of the European Union meetings based on the EYCS (Education) and Compet (Research) formations. Of these, 7 were held virtually and 27 held in person. Minister Harris attended 7; Minister of State Niall Collins attended 4; and ambassadors represented the Government on 9 occasions. The EYCS (Education) Council is shared...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Flexible Work Practices (12 Jun 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: The majority of staff in the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science are availing of remote working since 2020. The Department's Blended Working Policy was introduced at the end of 2023 and allows staff members to make applications to work remotely for up to 3 days per week. We are now accepting applications from staff members to formalise their blended...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Costs (11 Jun 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 888, 889 and 891 together. The Student Grant Scheme is a demand led scheme and as such the number of students who are eligible for grants varies from year to year. As of 4th June 2024, there are over 47,000 students in receipt of a maintenance grant at PLC, Postgraduate and Undergraduate level, if the same number of students were eligible for a grant in...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Costs (11 Jun 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 890 and 892 together. To avail of maintenance under the Full time Schemeyou must meet all eligibility criteria including a means test in respect of an applicant’s reckonable income (gross household income). Schedule 1, Table B of the Student Grant Scheme 2024 outlines the income limits for Maintenance Grants from September 2024. It is important to note...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Data (11 Jun 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: Training to address possible racism and unconscious bias mostly takes place in the broader context of Equality Diversity and Inclusion training. Since the beginning of 2022, our values and strategic goals have been communicated to new colleagues during the induction process (close to 100 since 2022). All-staff days regularly reference those values. These values include a focus on inclusion....

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Legislative Measures (11 Jun 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: My Department is currently progressing two pieces of legislation, the Research and Innovation Bill and the Construction Safety Licensing Bill 2023. Research and Innovation Bill As part of Impact 2030: Ireland’s Research and Innovation Strategy, the Government has approved the creation of a new statutory research funding agency “Taighde Éireann - Research Ireland”,...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Reform (11 Jun 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: At Higher Education level, the fourth National Access Plan: A Strategic Action Plan for Equity of Access, Participation and Success in Higher Education 2022-2028 was published in August 2022. The National Access Plan (NAP) is a key commitment in the Programme for Government with an additional dedicated investment of €35 million. A specific target of 16% for new entrants with a...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Reform (11 Jun 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: The principal support provided by my Department is the student grant scheme, which makes available means-tested financial assistance to students in further and higher education. Under the terms of the student grant scheme, grant assistance is awarded to students on full-time courses who meet the prescribed conditions of funding including those which relate to nationality, residency, approved...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Reform (11 Jun 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: As the Deputy may be aware, the objective of the statutory based student grant scheme is to provide additional assistance where parental income is below a certain threshold or, in the case of independent mature students, where the level of income of the student and his or her spouse warrants additional assistance by way of a grant. For student grants purposes, students are categorised...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (11 Jun 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: Higher Education Institutions are autonomous bodies and are responsible for their own day-to-day management and operational affairs, including the management of academic affairs. They retain the right to determine their own policies and procedures. The Universities Act confers on universities autonomy with regards to the internal day to day running of the institution, administrative...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Fees (11 Jun 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: In order to expand medical places in higher education on the island of Ireland an agreement was reached to fund additional places in medicine in Northern Ireland. This was announced by Minister Simon Harris and Minister Stephen Donnelly in February this year. This agreement will see fifty additional medicine places funded by the Irish Government for qualifying students in Queens University...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Education (11 Jun 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: A pilot part time grant scheme will be introduced effective from September 2024. It will provide fee support to eligible part-time students attending specified publicly funded undergraduate courses leading to a major award. This is an important new initiative which will open the doors of higher education to many groups who cannot participate in full time programmes. The parameters of the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Admissions (11 Jun 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: The information requested by the Deputy was sourced from the Higher Education Authority Student Records System. The table below outlines the total number of students enrolled on Dental Nursing programmes in Irish Higher Education Institutions. The recorded domicile for all students in the Level 7 Diploma programmes is Ireland. Regarding the level 6 Higher Certificate programmes, the domicile...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Grant Payments (11 Jun 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: Under section 24 of the Student Support Act 2011, a person is liable to repay to the awarding authority money that the person is not entitled to receive. Where overpayments do arise, SUSI has a formal Overpayments Policy and implements a structured process of debt management to seek their recovery. Regarding the specific query raised by the Deputy, SUSI have advised that while the Applicant...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Period Poverty (11 Jun 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: I would like to thank the Deputy for his question. The breakdown of the funding is being finalised by the Higher Education Authority and it is expected shortly. I have asked officials in my Department to forward the breakdown to the Deputy when it is available. I trust this clarifies the matter.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Qualifications Recognition (11 Jun 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: The time it takes to complete a craft apprenticeship is 48 months or 4 years. The average apprenticeship completion time is based on progression through off-the-job training phases with training capacity and does not reflect delays due to deferring training, assessment delays or other individual circumstances. Currently, out of 25 craft apprenticeship programmes, four are on average...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Contracts (11 Jun 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: I can confirm to the Deputy that there have been 2 contracts with a total value of €54,045.13 in the past 12 months (June 2023 to May 2024, inclusive) for the company identified in the query.