Results 2,161-2,180 of 11,899 for speaker:Niall Collins

Written Answers — Department of Health: Primary Care Centres (9 Dec 2021)

Niall Collins: 324. To ask the Minister for Health if he will report on the progress made to provide a network of primary healthcare centres in County Limerick; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60981/21]

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (8 Dec 2021)

Niall Collins: The breakdown of the €118.5 million Covid expenditure allocations approved from the National Training Fund in 2021 along with the overall 2021 allocations are set out in the following table: 2021 Total Allocation Includes COVID allocation €m €m Programmes for those in Employment ...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Pension Provisions (7 Dec 2021)

Niall Collins: 217. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform when a person (details supplied) will be paid a preserved pension; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59890/21]

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (7 Dec 2021)

Niall Collins: 255. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the position regarding houses impacted by Mica and Pyrite in County Limerick in view of the recent Government decision; the communications he has received from Limerick City and County Council; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60331/21]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Health Services (7 Dec 2021)

Niall Collins: 593. To ask the Minister for Health if he will address the concerns raised in correspondence in relation to a patient (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60330/21]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Health Services (2 Dec 2021)

Niall Collins: 202. To ask the Minister for Health the status of the case of a child (details supplied); the steps he will take to provide a solution to the issues in relation to the treatment of children with spina bifida and or hydrocephalus; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59607/21]

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Supplementary)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2021)

Niall Collins: I thank the Chairman and committee members for the opportunity to speak to them this morning and for the committee's consideration of the the Department for Further and Higher Education, Research Innovation and Science's Supplementary Estimate. I am accompanied today by officials from my Department and am conscious that I have only five minutes to deliver my opening statement. I will...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Supplementary)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2021)

Niall Collins: I thank the Deputy. I will make a couple of comments on apprenticeships. The committee will be well aware that we launched the Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021 to 2025 earlier in the year and it has a number of high-level targets in it to increase the number of new apprenticeship registrations up to 10,000 per annum by the year 2025. Within that also is a reorganisation of the...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Supplementary)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2021)

Niall Collins: As I described in the opening statement, back in 2009 there was an arrangement between the then Department of Education and Science and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to take over the liability for pensions in our university sector. Similar to any other civil or public servants when they retire, the obligation falls to have their pensions paid to them. Pensions are not...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Supplementary)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2021)

Niall Collins: We have negotiated this lump sum, if one can describe it as such, to distribute and this will be done by the HEA across our universities, institutes of technology and technological universities. We have also built an additional €20 million into the base of that going forward. There is a recognition and a commitment from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform that this is a...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Supplementary)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2021)

Niall Collins: In terms of identifying skills and deficits in skills, there are seven regional skills fora and they are rooted in their regions. The fora are populated by employers and business and industry leaders in these regions. The fora are not sector-specific and cover all of the sectors. There is also a regional skills manager in each of the areas who oversees and co-ordinates. So that is part of...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Supplementary)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2021)

Niall Collins: The Deputy alluded to the CAO in the preamble to his question. Recently the Department has completely broadened the information and the provision of information and options on the CAO website in order that people can now access full information such as where and when to apply through the CAO options for further and higher education and apprenticeships. Built into that is the availability of...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Supplementary)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2021)

Niall Collins: Earlier this year we published our safe return to on-campus in-person guidelines following extensive collaboration with all of the stakeholders in the sector, including students and staff unions. That provided a roadmap and a template to reopen in a structured manner given the public health climate and guidance. Right now universities, technological colleges and further education...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Supplementary)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2021)

Niall Collins: We are very conscious of this matter. Housing for All is a massive house building programme that the State is undertaking. For that programme to succeed we need a pipeline of skilled workers. We are also conscious of the State’s obligation in respect of climate change. There is a focus on green skills and the nearly zero energy building, NZEB, centres. I do not have the exact...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Supplementary)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2021)

Niall Collins: He also asked about PLCs. A total of €2 million is allocated in the budget for next year to abolish the €200 fee for students taking those courses.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Supplementary)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2021)

Niall Collins: This issue was raised in the Dáil this week on Question Time, during which the Minister told the Deputy and others that the institute itself must make an application, after which we will do everything humanly possible at our end to make it happen. The Minister will, of course, meet with Oireachtas Members from County Louth, as he has indicated. I am available to travel to DkIT in the...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Supplementary)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2021)

Niall Collins: I spoke earlier about the apprenticeship action plan, of which members are well aware, and the targets contained therein. Our primary role is to support SOLAS, aided by the HEA and the ETBs in the role they play in the area of apprenticeships. In the case of almost every apprenticeship programme, there is a basic requirement that there cannot be an apprentice without an employer, who is the...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Supplementary)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2021)

Niall Collins: We will do so, if the Chair does not mind. Obviously, the TU project is a priority. That has advanced, thankfully, and it is the first for the region. The provision of a campus in Wexford is a priority for us all. We will get back to the Chair with an information note on where exactly we are.