Results 4,941-4,960 of 19,968 for speaker:Norma Foley

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Admissions (24 Jan 2024)

Norma Foley: I can assure the Deputy that the provision of school places to meet the needs of children and young people at primary and post primary level, including children and young people with special educational needs is an absolute priority for my Department. As the Deputy may be aware, while there can be enrolment pressures and demand for additional school places in some areas, it is important to...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Admissions (24 Jan 2024)

Norma Foley: As the Deputy may be aware, while there can be enrolment pressures and demand for additional school places in some areas, it is important to note sometimes this may not be as a result of lack of accommodation, but may be driven by the following factors: Duplication of applicationsSchool of choiceSingle sex schoolsExternal drawNotwithstanding the above, in some areas demographic pressures and...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Funding (24 Jan 2024)

Norma Foley: The Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027 was published last year and is underpinned by an investment of €200m to support its implementation, committed to under Ireland’s National Development Plan (NDP). The first tranche of €50m issued to all recognised primary and post-primary schools in late 2021. The previous Digital Strategy for Schools 2015 to 2020 saw overall...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (24 Jan 2024)

Norma Foley: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year over 161,600 children, including over 135,000 pupils travelling on primary and post primary services, 19,800 pupils with special educational needs, and 6,800 pupils who have arrived to Ireland from Ukraine are transported on a daily basis to...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (24 Jan 2024)

Norma Foley: The project to which the Deputy refers, was approved a project under my Department’s Additional School Accommodation Scheme (ASA) in January 2024 for the provision of 1 mainstream classroom and 2 class SEN base. This project has now been devolved to the school authorities for delivery.The school authority is now required to appoint a Design Team to prepare a Stage 1 design report,...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Funding (24 Jan 2024)

Norma Foley: I wish to advise the Deputy that it is not possible to commit to a date or a new round of funding at this time. As the Deputy will be aware, any future funding is contingent on the budgetary resources available to the Department and the priorities and demands relating to the budget.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Funding (24 Jan 2024)

Norma Foley: I wish to advise the Deputy that as set out in Parliamentary Question No. 680 of 17 January 2024 a lottery was run but then the application from each school selected in the lottery was assessed on a case by case basis. The applications were read again by the evaluation team, to ensure they met the requirements as set out in the grant call. School status was one of the considerations taken...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (24 Jan 2024)

Norma Foley: I can confirm to the Deputy that the school referred to was approved for a project under my Department's Additional School Accommodation (ASA) scheme. The project will provide the following accommodation at the school - 2 classroom SEN base, 12 SET rooms and reconfiguration of an existing staff room to provide HSCL room and new staff room. This project has been devolved for delivery to the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Irish Language (24 Jan 2024)

Norma Foley: I propose to take Questions Nos. 117 and 120 together. My Department implemented theoutcome of the public service-wide review of allowances and premium payments(September 2012) by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform whichmeans that many allowances, including this one, were no longer payable to“new entrant” Teachers. Circular 0008/2013 outlines the effect of this...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Admissions (24 Jan 2024)

Norma Foley: The Department is aware of pressures for school places for the 2024/25 school year in Newcastle_Rathcoole School Planning Area. A critical next step for the Department is to establish the actual number of additional first year places required for 2024 in order for an appropriate solution to be put in place. In that context, schools in a number of areas of enrolment pressure, including Town,...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Admissions (24 Jan 2024)

Norma Foley: I wish to advise the Deputy that requirements for school places is kept under on-going review in the context of available information on population, enrolments and residential development activity. In order to plan for school provision and analyse the relevant demographic data, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas and uses a Geographical Information System, using...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Data (24 Jan 2024)

Norma Foley: My Department published Cineáltas: Action Plan on Bullying in December 2022, which is dedicated to the prevention and addressing of bullying, cyber bullying, racist bullying, gender identity bullying or sexual harassment, among other areas, in schools. Cineáltas is centred on a child right’s based approach and provides a collective vision and clear roadmap for how the whole...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Admissions (24 Jan 2024)

Norma Foley: I can assure the Deputy that the provision of school places to meet the needs of children and young people at primary and post primary level, including children and young people with special educational needs is an absolute priority for the Department. My Department is aware of pressures for school places for the 2024/25 school year in North Kildare School Planning Areas of Maynooth,...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Staff (24 Jan 2024)

Norma Foley: My Department’s Blended Working Policy was launched in 2023 and applications for blended working which have been received from staff are still being processed. Therefore, at this point, the department is not in a position to provide exact numbers as the data is not yet fully captured. Under my Department's Blended Working Policy, the majority of staff can apply to work from home up...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Staff (24 Jan 2024)

Norma Foley: The information sought by the Deputy in regard to the bodies under the aegis of my Department is not routinely collated by my Department. We have requested all Department of Education aegis bodies respond directly to the Deputy as soon as possible.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Air Safety (24 Jan 2024)

Norma Foley: Managing ventilation is one of a suite of public health measures in place to keep our schools safe. Updated guidance for schools on Practical Steps for the Deployment of Good Ventilation Practices in Schools was provided in 2021 following the work of an expert group that carefully considered the role of ventilation in managing COVID-19. The updated guidance for schools is also fully in line...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Data (24 Jan 2024)

Norma Foley: Please find attached requested information for the years 2019-2022 inclusive, 2022 being the latest year we have class size data. The figures are based on mainstream classes in mainstream schools and were collated from the relevant Class Size tables published on the DE website and can be found at the link below; gov.ie - Class Size Information at Individual Primary School Level (www.gov.ie)

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Irish Sign Language (24 Jan 2024)

Norma Foley: The department had a total of 56 Twitter video posts between 1 January 2023 and 31 December 2023, of which 51 (91%) utilised closed captioned/subtitled. 8 (14%) of the posts featured Irish Sign Language (ISL) A total of 24 videos were posted on LinkedIn between 1 January 2023 and 31 December 2023, of which 21 (87%) utilised closed captioned/subtitled. 3 (12%) of the posts featured Irish Sign...

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

Norma Foley: The Post-Primary Redeployment Schemes are reviewed annually by my Department and Education Stakeholders, including Teacher Unions. The criteria for the allocation of teachers to schools including the redeployment arrangements for the 2024/25 school year will shortly be available on the Department's website. It is at this stage that counties relevant to the pilot voluntary redeployment...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (23 Jan 2024)

Norma Foley: The major building project for the school referred to by the Deputy has recently completed Stage 2(b) Detailed Design. The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) report has been reviewed by the Department. As the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) have implemented Revised Public Works Contract documents as of July 27th2023, the Design Team have been requested to further review their...