Results 3,781-3,800 of 46,260 for speaker:Simon Harris

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: -----and is up quite significantly. SOLAS has spoken about this publicly and has produced figures on it. In general, the number of people doing PLC courses has risen, the trend is rising and is likely to continue to rise because of the demographics. I am happy to try to get under the bonnet of this and I do not want to interrupt the Deputy's question. I met Education and Training Boards...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: I will get the Deputy more comprehensive note because I wonder if the parliamentary questions are just referring to PLCs specifically and were probably missing the mapping out in that answer with regard to traineeships, apprenticeships and tertiary degree programmes which could be available between the ETB and the technological universities. I would be very happy to ask the ETB to brief the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: Very much so. My impression would be that LWETB is doing that and is doing that well. We have been doing these regional dialogues, which have been quite good, where we have been going to regions and having all the education players at a tertiary level to come into a room to discuss provision and their plans for their region, whether it is an ETB, a research centre, a technological...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: Let us get clarity, because I know it to be a very proactive ETB with an excellent chief executive and with a great deal of demand. Let me just check that that parliamentary question did not too narrowly capture the information the Deputy was looking for.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: On the national tertiary office and the national tertiary degrees, which, as the Deputy said, are the first time we have provided degree programmes outside of the CAO points system, he is correct to say 23 courses were identified. I will get him a breakdown, because I do not have one to hand, but I can tell him from my own knowledge and from going around the country and engaging with people...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: I appreciate that. While I do not know the Deputy's second cousin, it is generally those kinds of stories, which we have heard time and again, that have inspired the programme. I want to be associated with the Deputy's comments. I fully commend the Department of integration and the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, on the job they are doing. It would be irresponsible of them, in the middle of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: I find myself in pretty much complete agreement with Deputy Nolan. I will go through the issues. With regard to the regions and remote learning hubs, Deputy Nolan is entirely correct. Relatively recently, some time last year, I attended a launch. There is a lot of talk about remote working hubs and I believe they are working reasonably well, and particularly well in some areas. There is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: I am lucky to have an office. I thank the Deputy and welcome him back after his surgery. I will check that issue out. My honest answer is that I do not know. I have a dim view of any sort of vacant property in the middle of housing crisis, to make that point more generally. I have no knowledge of that but I will endeavour to find out for the Deputy. I thank him for paying tribute to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: What I might do is send the committee a note on this but the short answer is "Yes". The €5 million will sustain existing provision but we hope it will do a bit more than that because what we are also trying to do is put funding that had been temporary funding into the core. One of the things the universities regularly say is that all funding is welcome and makes a positive impact but...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: The Cathaoirleach raises a very important issue. We obviously have Connecting for Life, which is the national strategy that stems from the National Office for Suicide Prevention and within that are clear actions for a whole variety of parts of society and public bodies today. That is the structure through which we co-ordinate. I acknowledge that there has been very good co-operation and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: As the programme for Government states, we are living in a country where there is an epidemic when it comes to sexual and gender-based violence and we need to call it out. I do not believe our universities are any different to wider society or wider workplaces. As I always say when I speak to our university students or staff, sexual, domestic or gender-based violence is not unique to third...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: We will write to the Senator on that. We will set up regional forums so the universities can plug in locally with the NTA and others who are beginning to unblock some of these issues. I also thank Tom Enright. I will come back to the Cathaoirleach about the dental issue, is primarily a matter for the Dental Council, and on the Wexford site on which I understand masterplanning is under way.which

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: No, let me give an example. While I am not saying we have, we could well decide that the best way is a public private partnership.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Official Travel (23 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: A tabular statement of the Minister's official trips is attached.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Research and Development (23 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: The Framework Programme for Research and Innovation - Horizon Europe is the European Union’s largest research and innovation programme, with a budget of €95.5 billion over its seven-year lifetime from 2021 to 2027. The Horizon Europe programme encompasses all European Member States as well as 18 Associated Countries from around the world. Israel signed a Horizon Europe...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (23 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: As Minister I have ensured an unrelenting focus on growing participation in apprenticeships. Underpinned by the measures in the Action Plan for Apprenticeship, the impact is very clear and positive, with significant growth of apprenticeship over the past number of years. Since 2021, over 27,000 people have registered as apprentices. Craft apprenticeship registrations for 2021- 2023 were...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (23 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: As the Deputy is aware, the main support available to assist students with the cost of attending higher education is the Student Grant Scheme. Under the Scheme, grant assistance is awarded to eligible students attending an approved full-time course in an approved institution who meet the prescribed conditions of funding, including those relating to nationality, residency, previous academic...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Data (23 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: My Department shares data with other organisations for varied purposes such as compliance with employee tax obligations, in connection with legal proceedings, awarding of bursaries/scholarships and audit purposes. The transfer of data may be in aggregated form or on an individual basis depending on the specific purpose in question. For example, the data of Department employees is shared on an...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Disability Services (18 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy Ó for his question but, more importantly, for genuinely engaging constructively with me on this over a sustained period. I have found his engagement to be insightful and very useful to my Department. As he will be well aware, a number of education and training boards, ETBs, have employed personal assistants to provide supports to learners under the fund for students...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Disability Services (18 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: There is a big piece of policy work that I have asked my Department to do on how we support people with disabilities throughout the tertiary education system. This is not a political point because it happened long before I was here but over a number of generations we have made good progress on inclusion at primary and second level. We have more to do but there has been good progress....