Results 9,341-9,360 of 46,456 for speaker:Simon Harris

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Student Accommodation (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: I propose to take Questions Nos. 89, 98, 100, 102 and 132 together. I thank the Deputy for the question on housing and student accommodation. The first thing this Government must and will do is to be honest that we need a new and better model for student accommodation. Yes, we have seen the supply - and I can ream off statistics - of purpose-built private student accommodation...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Student Accommodation (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: First, we are looking at all options across the range. All colleges need to see the provision of accommodation as a core component of what they need to do, because otherwise, a lack of it will become an issue in terms of participation in education. In fairness to them, institutes of technology and technological universities, until the publication of Housing for All in recent weeks, were not...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Student Accommodation (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: The short answer is "Yes". We came together on an Oireachtas cross-party basis on legislation passed by the Minister of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to ban that practice, so that no renter, student or otherwise, can now be asked to pay more than one month's rent plus a deposit. It was a huge issue that USI and others were highlighting last year. Students were wrongly being asked...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: It will be published on the record of the House.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: The Deputy does not need to do that. The replies are published. That is how parliamentary questions are published. The Deputy has been in the House long enough to know that.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: That is exactly what we will do. In budget 2022 we have brought about a significant increase as a statement of intent. Nobody is suggesting it is the final destination, but we will also settle the question of a sustainable funding model for higher education.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: The Deputy did not do much for them himself.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Durkan for this important question. I thank him also for the time we spent yesterday in Celbridge and Maynooth viewing further education and higher education facilities. I very much enjoyed it, though he still has not given us the winning lotto numbers. Ireland has developed a national skills system across further and higher education and apprenticeships, lifelong...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: This whole discussion on skills is one of the most important ones we can have in these Houses because so much else of what we talk about here is dependent on getting this right. We talk a lot about housing. The Deputy will have heard me talk about this yesterday in Kildare. We need about 27,000 more people to work in the construction sector. The Deputy and I are not going to build the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: Yes, I do. I am really encouraged by what I saw yesterday and what I saw of the research ecosystem in Maynooth and the real focus there on doing more in research and collaborating. I am encouraged by the meeting I had with the new president of NUI Maynooth yesterday, her management team and the discussions we had on collaboration with further education. I really want to see the education...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: I will give somewhat of a similar answer but I will try to add a few bits of new information. We have an advanced system of skills provision in our country, whether you look at the success of our secondary school system and the Department of Education, our further education and training facilities or our higher education. We also know, however, that we cannot be complacent. No one owes...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: The short answer is "Yes". We have a good pipeline of graduates and apprentices. One of the decisions taken by Government and by my colleague, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage in recent weeks and months - providing certainty of funding for construction and public investment in construction for the years ahead - can provide an assurance to people looking to work in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: I will indeed engage with the Minster for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, on this issue. I am pleased to say that, when it comes to the SUSI review, we specifically included the Department of Social Protection in the steering group. What we all want is to ensure no poverty traps exist regarding any State support. I am cognisant that the working family payment is not a barrier to any...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for the important question on SUSI grant schemes and their real value. I suggest that I provide him with some of the information in tabular form to assist with the discussion this evening. As part of budget 2022, a budget of the three-party Government, we announced the first major changes to the student grant scheme rates and eligibility. These include an increase to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: I am sorry. They were reduced and were then static.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: They were, indeed. Yes.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: We are not even there yet.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: I do not need a history lesson, and neither does the Deputy, in respect of some of the very difficult economic decisions this country made after the troika period and, indeed, during that period, when many difficult public expenditure decisions had to be made. We are not going to debate on the floor of the Dáil why they were made, I am quite sure. When our two parties came together...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: Which the Deputy voted for.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: It is your package.