Results 5,461-5,480 of 19,968 for speaker:Norma Foley

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (30 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: The campus project to which the Deputy refers, is devolved for delivery to the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA). This project is part of the bundle referred to as ‘Project Shannon'. I am pleased to advise that the procurement for the design team is currently underway and is nearing completion. Once the procurement process is finalised, the design team will be formally...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Bullying in Educational Institutions (30 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: Under the Education (Welfare) Act, 2000 all schools are required to have in place a code of behaviour that accords with Developing a Code of Behaviour: Guidelines for Schools as published by the National Educational Welfare Board (NEWB), now referred to as the Educational Welfare Service (EWS). Each school is required to have an anti-bullying policy within its overall code of behaviour. The...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (30 Nov 2023)

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. Budget 2024 contains a range of measures that demonstrate my commitment to continued investment in our education system. A professional masters’ of education incentive scheme will be...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Enrolments (30 Nov 2023)

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. As the Deputy may be aware, for school planning purposes, the Department of Education divides the country into 314 school planning areas...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teaching Qualifications (30 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: Officials from the Payroll Section of my Department have previously been in contact with the Principal of the school referred to by the Deputy. Different rates of pay apply depending on the nature of the employment in a school and the Teaching Council status of the person who is undertaking the work in the school. The teaching positions referred to are full-time teaching positions in the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (30 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: I was delighted to announce along with Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, Ossian Smyth, the first phase of the SchoolsPhotovoltaic Programme on 23rd November. It will allow up to 4,000 schools nationwide to get solar PV panels to reduce their energy bills and their carbon emissions. This ties in with the strong ethos of environmental awareness...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: I know the committee will join with me in extending our sympathy and support to the children and their carer impacted by the horrific violence on Thursday last in an area in proximity to a school in Parnell Square, Dublin. In particular, we are thinking of the young child and her carer who remain in hospital. I thank the Cathaoirleach and members of the committee for their personal...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: We have a cohort of more than 1 million students. We have an increased number of students who are coming from abroad, for example. To mention Ukraine alone, there are more than 17,700 students from there. The Deputy will know that students who come from another area, by virtue of their age, can often be exempted from the Irish language. Because there is a more multicultural or diverse...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: There is an element of choice with those other subjects. Students have the opportunity to choose whether they will pursue another language whether it is French, German or Spanish or whatever might be available in a school. It is very hard to draw a comparison there because that is a strong distinction. Notwithstanding that, the Department is very conscious of the importance and the primacy...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: I fully accept the Deputy’s passion. I want to acknowledge the work of Conradh na Gaelige and other organisations.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: There is a suite of organisations doing great work on this area and have been very engaged with the Department. I fundamentally agree with the Deputy that the more languages a student is given the opportunity to experience, statistics show they can perform very strongly from a linguistic perspective. That is the chief motivation behind bringing in a variety of modern foreign languages at...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: We are doing this now and I know people would have different views initially as to the benefits and the impacts on the Irish language. In fact, studies show us that where students can master one language, they can master a second one. We are moving ahead with that and this ability to introduce modern foreign languages at primary school has been very positively endorsed. That involves...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: -----as we go forward.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: Was that with regard to the inflation?

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: I thank the Deputy very much for those questions. On the school secretaries, there are more than 2,600 school secretaries on the payroll and 154 of them are individual secretaries employed by more than one school. I am just giving the Deputy that information as it is an interesting dynamic. The Department has been providing a payroll service for these school secretaries since September...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: I acknowledge my officials. They really did put in an enormous body of work to get it, in the first instance, through primary and on into post-primary level. I acknowledge that post-primary level is a very different experience from primary, with a greater number of subjects and a diversity of choice and all of that. There is a review of how the scheme worked in primary. That is very much...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: Very much so. I acknowledge that tremendous work was done on the ground by schools to make it workable, as it were. The Department did provide specific and additional funding to schools to ensure they were recompensed, if you like, for taking charge of the roll-out of the book scheme and compensated for the time and work involved in it. It has been very positively endorsed by parents and...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: Tuigim an méid sin. Is maith is cuimhin liom an cruinniú a bhí againn. Tá an Roinn ag déanamh gach iarracht áiteanna a chur ar fáil do na daltaí. I understand a very impressive meeting that was organised by the parents there. There is a genuine determination on the part of parents, the Deputy and public representatives, who are very committed. I...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: On the issue of the posts of responsibility, as part of the budget 2024 process, 1,000 additional posts of responsibility will be made available. That is a positive and a win for schools. If we believe in distributed leadership, we must provide opportunities for it. Regarding the master's in education, Building Momentum has provided a sectoral bargaining process to deal with outstanding...