Results 9,961-9,980 of 46,456 for speaker:Simon Harris

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Grant Payments (27 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: The student grant scheme, administered by SUSI, provides grants to students who meet the prescribed conditions of funding, including those relating to nationality, residency, previous academic attainment and means. SUSI received over 100,000 applications for academic year 2020/21 representing an increase in applications when compared to 2019/20. There have been no delays in the processing of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Further and Higher Education Institutions: Discussion (22 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy and acknowledge, regarding the extra funding, the work and the survey she did, which was helpful and informed much of the discussion. On the accommodation legislation, I welcome the change of legislation. It had cross-party support in the Oireachtas. It does two things. It limits the amount of upfront deposit a renter can be asked for to no more than one month's rent...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Further and Higher Education Institutions: Discussion (22 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: I am saying we all worked at speed across the parties in both Houses of the Oireachtas to pass this legislation to provide protections for students and I would take a grim view of anybody not rigidly applying both the letter and the spirit of the legislation. Many of the issues students have highlighted to me in relation to being asked for many months of rent upfront were from college-owned...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Further and Higher Education Institutions: Discussion (22 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for her constructive engagement on this. We discussed it on the floor of the Dáil on many occasions. I will give the Deputy the latest statistics from SUSI. As of 11 July, more than 80,000 applications have been received from new and returning students, of which 56,000 have been processed and 49,500 of those have been deemed eligible for support. In the last...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Further and Higher Education Institutions: Discussion (22 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: It was great to be back in the west and able to meet people in real life rather than on Zoom. I thank Senator Dolan for her work in highlighting the SUSI review. I can tell her that we received over 250 submissions via the public consultation process from a wide range of organisations, many of which work with students, parents, vulnerable people and people at risk of poverty, with ideas...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Further and Higher Education Institutions: Discussion (22 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: I was delighted to be in Galway last week with the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, for the launch of the active consent programme. We have managed to fund Ireland's first ever digital hub - effectively a website - with resources for staff and students in consent. Sexual harassment is not confined to third level education but third level education should be leading in this area. The...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Further and Higher Education Institutions: Discussion (22 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Ó Ríordáin for his questions and kind comments about the work of the Department. I thank all of the officials who are trying to build a new Department. While it is not quite being built from scratch, it is taking many functions from the Department of Education and the previous Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, and loading them together at a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Further and Higher Education Institutions: Discussion (22 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: First, I thank Senator O'Reilly very much for making the point better than I did that we are not talking about a reopening of third level because, of course, third level never closed in terms of the delivery of the service. I say that out of respect to the staff and students, who worked in the most extraordinarily difficult circumstances to keep the show on the road. People managed to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Further and Higher Education Institutions: Discussion (22 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: I have read it. I had the honour of saying a few words at the launch of the report yesterday. It is a really good piece of work. I thank Ms Niamh O'Reilly, who heads up AONTAS, and all of the team. They are members of our Covid steering group which meets regularly, generally on a Friday. That is very important, as they are often the voice of community education. We have pretty good...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Further and Higher Education Institutions: Discussion (22 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: I do indeed. I will ask the institutions to show that flexibility. I often think of the soon-to-be second year college students who physically left a school building in March 2020. In many cases, they have not been physically inside an educational setting since then. It would be unusual not to need a period to re-adapt. Anyone would need that after such a level of disruption. I have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Further and Higher Education Institutions: Discussion (22 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: That is a really good question. I will say two things. Ireland is open for international students. Ireland has not closed its borders. There are strict rules in place as to how one safely enters and leaves the country and students need to follow those rules just like anybody else. If one is coming from a country that is on the red list, the law of the land is that one needs to go into...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Further and Higher Education Institutions: Discussion (22 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: I will take the point on IT infrastructure as read, so as not to waste the Deputy's time. It is a valid point and I will see what more we can do in that regard. In fairness, the issue of what the return to the campus will look like on site is a key question. Deputy Conway-Walsh will have read the framework we published. What we have said is that at a minimum it is safe to come to the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Further and Higher Education Institutions: Discussion (22 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: On the specifics of how much time students will have on-site etc., that will be a matter for the institutions when timetabling and it will vary from institution to institution. We are starting from a point this year of wanting a majority of experience to be on-site rather than online. Timetables will issue from institutions in the normal way. Over the course of the next weeks and through...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Further and Higher Education Institutions: Discussion (22 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: Sorry. I had not got to that yet.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Further and Higher Education Institutions: Discussion (22 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: I take the point the Deputy is making. I was answering the broader question about timetabling for students in Irish higher education institutions. While I do not mean this about the Deputy or her interpretation of this, I think the issue of English language schools has been somewhat misrepresented. What we are saying about English language schools is in line with the public health advice...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Further and Higher Education Institutions: Discussion (22 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: On the borrowing framework for technological universities, I am aware of the Deputy's interest in this matter, both from a regional point of view in the south east and more broadly in terms of the roll-out of technological universities. We are engaging intensively with the Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform on this matter. It could be a potential game changer for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Further and Higher Education Institutions: Discussion (22 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank the Senator. That point about the additional places is worth briefly commenting on. This is a whole-of-Government effort, be it with the July stimulus, the last budget or now the additional places we got sanctioned by Government a few weeks ago. The further and higher education sector in Ireland has never been larger. Not only that, it has never been larger in areas where there...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Further and Higher Education Institutions: Discussion (22 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: I will be very careful and restrained in what I say, other than to agree with the sentiments expressed by Senator Byrne. I refer to the importance of the vaccination programme and science research. We have seen the great value derived from science and research in, literally, saving lives and allowing our country and world to reopen. As a former Minister for Health, I witnessed the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Further and Higher Education Institutions: Discussion (22 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy O'Sullivan for his three questions and those topics have been very much on my mind in the past 24 hours. Starting with the mental health supports, I must concede that I am a little torn on this issue. I want to do two things. First, I want to give the individual institutions maximum discretion. For example, if a really good idea is conceived in University College Cork, UCC,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Further and Higher Education Institutions: Discussion (22 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: On the question of international students which has been raised on a number of occasions today, I commit to the joint committee Chairman to obtaining a detailed briefing note for the committee. While we may not have final figures for another while, we should be able to provide the committee with indicative figures of this type and I will be happy to do that. We will revert to the committee...