Results 4,981-5,000 of 19,968 for speaker:Norma Foley

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

Norma Foley: Hereunder in tabular format is details of official state business undertaken by me in 2023 together with that of my accompanying Advisors and Department officials. Ministers Foley’s Foreign Trips - 2023 Trip and Flight Schedule Flight Costs Accommodation Accommodation Cost Dublin -Philadelphia and New York 10th – 15th...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (23 Jan 2024)

Norma Foley: My Department provides a Deduction at Source facility for voluntary deductions on the 4 payrolls for serving and retired teachers and Non Teaching Staff including SNAs. This facility is governed by the Deduction at Source Policy which is available on my Department’s website. Amongst the criteria to be met to operate a deduction at source is that a minimum of 10% of the payroll...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Residential Institutions (23 Jan 2024)

Norma Foley: As the Deputy is aware, on 27 June 2023 Government approved proposals for the provision of a package of ongoing supports to survivors and for the dissolution of the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Board (“Caranua”). The package of supports is comprised of a number of elements, including health, education, and advocacy supports. The delivery of both the health and...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: State Examinations (23 Jan 2024)

Norma Foley: The sraitheanna pictiúr, or picture sequences, are a component of the common Irish Oral test for Higher Level and Ordinary Level candidates, with the Oral test accounting for 40% of the overall marks for Leaving Certificate Irish. In response to issues highlighted in National Council Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) and Chomhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta &...

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

Norma Foley: The project for Sancta Maria College is currently at Stage 3 - Tender Action and Award. The brief is a completion contract for refurbishment works and a Sports Hall, following termination of the original contract. The Design Team are working on the prequalification process in order to shortlist potential tenderers. As soon as the prequalification process is finalised the project will...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Textbooks (23 Jan 2024)

Norma Foley: I propose to take Questions Nos. 294 and 296 together. As Minister for Education, I believe it is crucially important that children and young people are actively supported to access education in its fullest forms. This Government recognises that the cost of preparing children for school each September can be a cause of financial difficulty and worry for many Irish families. As part of...

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

Norma Foley: The large scale capital project for the completion of a school referred to by the deputy is at Architectural Planning Stage 3 – Tender Action and Award. The project brief was for the construction of a 32 classroom school and 2 classrooms for children with Special Educational needs, together with all associated site works. A tender report is under review by Department Officials....

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (23 Jan 2024)

Norma Foley: Ensuring that every child's experience in school is positive and that they have qualified, engaged teachers available to support them in their learning is a priority area of action for the Government. The vast majority of sanctioned teacher positions are filled. The rate of resignation and retirement is very low by any standard and is consistent with previous years. The recruitment and...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Facilities (23 Jan 2024)

Norma Foley: I refer to the Deputy’s query regarding funding towards an outdoor weather porch and Front door. The purpose of my Department’s Additional School Accommodation (or ASA) scheme is to ensure that essential mainstream classroom accommodation and accommodation for pupils with special education needs is available to cater for pupils enrolled each year, where the need cannot be...

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

Norma Foley: The project to which the Deputy refers has been devolved to the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA) for delivery as part of a programme of school building projects. This school is part of the bundle known as ‘Project Nore’ I am pleased to inform the Deputy that the project is at Stage 4 of the delivery process, and construction commenced in Q4, 2023. At this early stage...

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

Norma Foley: The large scale capital project at the school is for the provision of a new 600 pupil school and ancillary accommodation. The project is at Architectural Planning Stage 3 – Tender Action and Award. The original grant of planning expired in December 2022, but due to changes to the Planning Acts in September 2021, it was no longer possible to apply for an extension to the planning...

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

Norma Foley: The project to which the Deputy refers has been devolved for delivery to Kildare & Wicklow Education and Training Board (KWETB). It is currently at Stage 2b of the process, which allows for detailed design/planning, obtaining the necessary statutory permissions and the preparation of tender documents. When this stage is finalised, the next stage is tendering for a contractor and then...

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

Norma Foley: Since 2020, my Department has invested in the region of €4.3 billion in our schools throughout the country, involving the completion of over 750 school building projects with construction currently underway at approximately 300 other projects, which includes 34 new school buildings. School building projects at construction involve an overall State investment of over €1.2...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Funding (23 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.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teacher Training (23 Jan 2024)

Norma Foley: Under Section 38 of the Teaching Council Act, all initial teacher education programmes must be accredited by the Teaching Council for registration purposes. The Council reviewed its policy on standards for programmes of initial teacher education and published updated standards in Céim Standards for Initial Teacher Education in October 2020. These standards ensure that graduates from...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Funding (23 Jan 2024)

Norma Foley: My Department has a strong track record of delivery of school building projects and this was achieved again in 2023 notwithstanding the wider construction sector environment of high inflation, labour shortages and supply chain issues. Under Project Ireland 2040, we are investing over €5 billion during the period 2021 to 2025, to add capacity and develop and upgrade school...

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

Norma Foley: The project referred to by the Deputy has been devolved for delivery to Donegal Education and Training Board (DETB). The Design Team is currently progressing through Stage 1 of the architectural planning process, which involves developing options for both school buildings. DETB will submit a Stage 1 report to the Department once all viable options for the site have been assessed in...

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

Norma Foley: Please find attached requested data. Please note data provided is for academic year 2022-2023, the latest year we have final enrolment data. We expect to publish final enrolment data for academic year 2023-2024 in June 2024. ">Info

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

Norma Foley: PISA is designed to give large scale population level results and is not designed to assess individual student or school performance. Each school that takes part in PISA receives their own feedback from the Educational Research Centre which shows their own results in comparison to the national study but no school has access to another school’s results. It would not be appropriate...