Results 8,341-8,360 of 47,419 for speaker:Simon Harris

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (19 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I thank the committee for the invitation to be here with my officials to discuss our plans for the sustainable future funding of the higher education sector, student accommodation and a number of other agenda items which have the Chair outlined. I previously said to this committee that neither I nor the Government would be found wanting when it comes to trying to addressing the question of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (19 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Conway-Walsh. I wish to assure her that my position on North-South is not just to list all we are doing and all that we have done. I genuinely share her view and am more convinced by the day from my engagement North-South, and from my visit to Queen's University Belfast where I gave a guest lecture over the summer months outlining my vision for an all-Island approach to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (19 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I read the committee's reports and take its recommendations on board so we are proceeding with that to try and get a concrete understanding, an actual database, as to what is going on here. I will not take too much time on this but there are a number of real actions that we are taking to try to accelerate all-island collaboration in both further and higher education. In 2023, will see the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (19 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: The Senator covered a lot of ground so I hope she will bear with me. I thank her for working with me on the Higher Education Authority Bill. I enjoyed and appreciated her input. I am pleased we have managed to reduce the student contribution fee by €1,000 on a one-off basis. I am equally, if not more, proud that we have come up with a proper structure to look at the issue of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (19 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy. When he mentioned pronouncing his name, I thought of Kamala Harris. He could do very interesting election ads. He probably has-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (19 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for his comments on adult literacy. I should acknowledge, because it is the truth, that the Deputy was the first Oireachtas Member who spoke to me about the issue of adult literacy. We have been doing a lot of work on it as a Department, trying to advance some of the issues we discussed. We now have a national programme office set up to deliver the new adult literacy for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (19 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I am very committed. I am not an island and I am not the entire Government. It will require the Senator's party, my party and Senator Pauline O'Reilly's party working together to prioritise these issues. I have had great support from the Taoiseach on this. I want to genuinely acknowledge that, but it will require a collective effort from the whole Government. There are a couple of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (19 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: Given that it has over €1 billion sitting in it and soon it will have €2 billion, I believe it could if there was a political will and a bit of ingenuity. I am not saying it should, though. I believe it is a pot that needs to be considered. I would like to mention a second issue that did not get enough of a hearing, although it got a fair hearing today at the implementation...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (19 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I am not just an individual Minister who is saying he would like to do something about student accommodation and asking whether somebody should do something about it. Thankfully, it is more than that. At a Cabinet committee on housing in July, I think, the Taoiseach and I strongly put forward the view that there was a need for an intervention and the Taoiseach provided his imprimatur for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (19 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I will be brief. I can send the Senator more details. The PhD student review is a big part of getting that piece right. It is a question of how we treat PhD students, how we attract people to the country and how we retain people. It is an issue about their well-being and welfare and about national competitiveness. I think the Senator and I agree on that. He has raised this issue of PhD...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (19 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I thank the Senator for her comments and for all the work she does in engaging with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science on a whole range of issues related to the work of the Department, in Galway but also nationally. There are a couple of things here. The points made by the Senator highlight the need to overhaul the system we have in place in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (19 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I do not disagree with that at all. I am certainly not suggesting it would be and that is why I referenced the body of work that my Department tends to do with this external review about PhD support students, the consistency of those supports and how they are applied. I accept that 100%. The Senator touched on another issue on which I will not go into too much detail in case I frustrate...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (19 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: Students and their parents and families are not in any way immune from the real pressures people are feeling in relation to the cost-of-living crisis. It is palpable. It is difficult and challenging and we really want to look at practical ways of helping. That is why we have taken immediate measures between now and the end of the year with €143.5 million of direct financial...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (19 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: Chairman, we are in the business of taking down barriers and working very closely and collaboratively with the new Technological University, with the chair of the governing authority and with the President, Professor Veronica Campbell. There is a great leadership team and governing authority now in place which really hit the ground running in their formal launch on Monday. I do not mean...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (19 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I do.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (19 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: First, I was in Marino not that long ago and it is a very fine college doing a really impressive job providing us with the teachers and educators, including in early years, for now and into the future and I am very grateful for what they do. I had a very good conversation there with the president, a very impressive individual, about her and her management team's vision for the future of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (19 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I am very happy to. I am relying on my memory on this because I do not have it in a brief in front of me but I have quite a bit of familiarity with it because I had a very good meeting recently with the delegation of veterinary education leaders from the mid-west. They came to see me in Leinster House. There is at least two higher education institutions that I am aware of and I am sure...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (19 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: The Senator has my full support on that. I think it is really important that we move on that. The working group with Professor Tom Collins is doing work on part-time students. I will talk to NCI. I will come back to the Senator on CERN. I will talk to the Department of Justice.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (19 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I will come back formally to the committee on where we are at with CERN and the issue of the cost-benefit analysis.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Fees (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: The Deputy has rightly highlighted the work that remains to be done in reducing the cost of education. The Government that we are a part of - my party, the Deputy's and the Green Party - is the first to reduce college fees in about 27 years. It is a first step and it is not the only step we intend to take together. It has to be seen in the round. There is a reduction in the €1,000...