Results 4,161-4,180 of 46,260 for speaker:Simon Harris

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (19 Oct 2023)

Simon Harris: There is no list as such but we are doing a more in-depth dive into the data now. I think it can be for a variety of reasons, be they personal, health or cost. As a Government, we need to better understand the reasons but also recognise that sometimes people will choose to change and move to different courses. It is also important to bear this in mind when trying to improve a tertiary...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Budgets (19 Oct 2023)

Simon Harris: Budget 2024 introduced what is, by any fair and objective measure, a significant package of supports for third level students and their families. I will take each measure in turn. It is estimated that 94,000 students will benefit from the €1,000 reduction in the student contribution fee. Almost 52,000 students will benefit from the student grant increases. A total of 1,790...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Budgets (19 Oct 2023)

Simon Harris: I could not agree more. That is exactly what we are trying to do. Yes, we need to increase the size of the tertiary education system and we are doing so year-on-year. However, we also need to increase it specifically in areas where we know there is one of two things - a need for more people to work in that area from a public services point of view or a demand for more students to study in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Medical Research and Training (19 Oct 2023)

Simon Harris: On that, we have to be honest. The graduate medical entry programme was introduced to try to diversify the medical profession. We also have to be truthful that in recent years we have seen points for undergraduate medicine places skyrocket to the point that accessing those courses became prohibitive for many. People could achieve the best points possible in the leaving certificate and...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Medical Research and Training (19 Oct 2023)

Simon Harris: I hope he is happy with my answers. I agree with the Deputy's point that we do not want people who want to access the medical profession to reach barriers and blocks that mean we cannot diversify the profession. I know, as a former Minister for Health, how important diversification in medicine is. When we talk those most in need, as recently as last year we extended the 1916 bursary to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (19 Oct 2023)

Simon Harris: Dropout rates often do not factor in those who may have moved from one course to another within an institution. That is important to say because many of us will know somebody who might have started one degree or area of study and moved to another. The Deputy is right to highlight this issue. Ensuring that students succeed and thrive in their higher educational journey is an important...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Medical Research and Training (19 Oct 2023)

Simon Harris: There are two main factors driving my approach to addressing issues with medical education: ensuring we produce enough doctors to meet the requirements of our healthcare system and our society and providing more places for students in a context where the level of demand has consistently exceeded the number of places available. It was encouraging this year that, for the first time in a long...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Student Accommodation (19 Oct 2023)

Simon Harris: While I agree with the Deputy about affordability, you come at affordability from a range of ways. Affordability is about making sure a family or student can afford to pay the price of college and of renting for college. Reducing fees, increasing grants, extending the renter's tax credit and specifically putting €440,000 into the student assistance fund for students having difficulty...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Student Accommodation (19 Oct 2023)

Simon Harris: The short answer is that for the digs you do not. We had this issue last year too. I plan to publish a new student accommodation strategy by the end of the year. I prioritised trying to move on the legacy projects that had planning permission but that had stalled for economic reasons. I think on balance that was the right call. Those were priorities one, two and three. We will have a...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Traveller Education (19 Oct 2023)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I am committed to making progress in enhancing access, participation and success for learners across further education, apprenticeships and higher education. Recent data for 2021-22 indicate that the current number of new Traveller entrants to higher education is 52. The national access plan targets 150 new entrants to higher education...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Traveller Education (19 Oct 2023)

Simon Harris: I agree with all of that, and join with the Deputy in commending the University of Galway on all of the good work it is doing. I have had the opportunity to meet them on a few occasions specifically on the subject of Traveller participation. What I like about what they do is that it is not just about just getting somebody in the door. It is about getting somebody out the other side,...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Traveller Education (19 Oct 2023)

Simon Harris: The Deputy shows admirable ability in terms of how he got from here to there. I was pleased to visit Mountbellew in recent days and honoured to open the Aleen Cust library, named after the first female veterinary surgeon in Ireland and the UK, who was an incredible woman. I have been reading up on her in recent days. I was delighted to meet the team there and to see the good work going on...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Third Level Education (19 Oct 2023)

Simon Harris: I acknowledge that the Deputy raises this issue with me regularly. Every year since I became Minister, we have made improvements to PhD stipends, and rightly so because they are not where they need to be. The first change we made was to address a bizarre discrepancy that existed between the stipend for a PhD researcher with the Irish Research Council and that for a PhD researcher with...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Third Level Education (19 Oct 2023)

Simon Harris: I did not say that.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Third Level Education (19 Oct 2023)

Simon Harris: Of course, what I say is true in that I can direct only agencies under my remit, but the Deputy is entirely correct that, generally, other parts of government follow suit as well. The main funders of PhD researchers, from a State point of view, include individual institutions, SFI, the IRC, Teagasc and the HRB. The HRB has moved, the IRC and SFI are now moving and Teagasc will consider the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Third Level Education (19 Oct 2023)

Simon Harris: I do know what the issues are and I have engaged with many of our PhD researchers. As the Deputy knows and as I said earlier, a second report that was due from the co-chairs has been received by my Department and will be considered and published in the coming weeks. That report was charged with looking at a variety of other issues above and beyond the issue of stipends, and I know those...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Student Accommodation (19 Oct 2023)

Simon Harris: As the Deputy well knows, student accommodation is addressed through capital. The Government made clear on budget day, in advance of budget day and in a previous Government decision that in the national development plan, NDP, the uplift and extra funding in capital would be dealt with through the NDP review process, which is due to conclude around the end of the year. That will be an...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Budget 2024 (19 Oct 2023)

Simon Harris: The Deputy and I must talk to different students, which is entirely possible. I have met many students and parents who really welcome that rather than having to wait until next September for a fee reduction that might happen, we have taken the opportunity in the cost-of-living package to ensure tens of thousands of students will get €1,000 back before Christmas and tens of thousands...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Budget 2024 (19 Oct 2023)

Simon Harris: I am sure the Deputy will agree that we must start with those most in need. Ministers have to work with the resources that are available and it is right to target them at those most in need. From next September, any student with a household income below €56,000 will pay a grand total of zero in undergraduate fees. I often see that among secondary school students, many of them think...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Budget 2024 (19 Oct 2023)

Simon Harris: My vision on this is really clear. I believe education is a public good and that people should have a right to access it regardless of their means. Free education in Ireland now starts at age two, with free preschool education, and goes right the way through. That should continue on through to an undergraduate degree. Some people will go to college full time, some part time and others...