Results 21,161-21,180 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Capitation Grants (27 Sep 2017)

Richard Bruton: The estimated cost of increasing the rate of capitation by €10 per pupil in primary schools is circa €5.9m. The estimated cost of increasing the rate of capitation by €10 per pupil in post-primary schools is circa €3.7m. The estimated overall cost of a 5% increase to capitation rates in primary and post-primary schools is circa €10m. The Action Plan...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (27 Sep 2017)

Richard Bruton: Circular 12/2016, which is available on the Department website, outlines the number of days that teaching principals may take as release time in a school year in order to assist them fulfilling their principal duties. Under these arrangements my Department pays for a substitute teacher to be employed by a school to facilitate administrative functions to be undertaken by the teaching...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Expenditure (27 Sep 2017)

Richard Bruton: The Deputy will be aware of the Programme for Government commitment to increase financial supports for postgraduate students with a particular focus on those from low income households. In response to this commitment, I secured additional funding of €4 million in Budget 2017 to facilitate the reinstatement of full maintenance grants, from September 2017, for the most disadvantaged...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Fees (27 Sep 2017)

Richard Bruton: Based on the number of students that qualified for free fees funding in the academic year 2015/16, and taking into account overall expected increases in student numbers, it is estimated that the net cost to my Department of reducing the Student Contribution by €250 would be €18.4m; by €500 would cost €36.8m and by €1,000 would cost €73.6m. ...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Expenditure (27 Sep 2017)

Richard Bruton: The cost of reversing the change to the adjacent rate of the Student Grant, reducing it from 45 kilometres to 24 kilometres; is estimated to be in the region of €25m. This calculation is based on student grant holders for the academic year 2016/17. Prior to the introduction of the 45 km rule, circa three-quarters of all maintenance grant holders qualified for the higher...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Staff (27 Sep 2017)

Richard Bruton: I wish to advise the Deputy that the concept of streamlining in relation to the provision of Special Needs Assistant (SNA) support has not been drawn to my attention heretofore. My Department’s policy is that children with special educational needs should be included in mainstream placements with additional supports provided, unless such a placement would not be in their best...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Pupil-Teacher Ratio (27 Sep 2017)

Richard Bruton: Budget 2017 set out the resources available for schools in the 2017/18 school year. The budget provides for over 2,400 additional teaching posts for our primary and post-primary schools in the current school year. Budget 2016 provided for an improvement in the staffing schedule in primary schools by 1 point, from 1 teacher for every 28 pupils to 1 teacher for every 27 pupils for the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Budget 2018 (27 Sep 2017)

Richard Bruton: Decisions in relation to Budget 2018 will be taken as part of the estimates process and will be announced on Budget day. The 2017/18 school year brings a significant increase of over 5,000 in teacher numbers in our schools compared to the 2015/16 school year. While I am aware of the issues outlined, there are needs across the system which have to be balanced in the decisions made in each Budget.

Leaders' Questions (28 Sep 2017)

Richard Bruton: I thank Deputy Thomas Byrne for raising this issue. I can fully understand the pursuit by the teachers’ unions of this particular issue. I sat down with the teachers’ unions through the teacher conciliation service and we negotiated, under the Lansdowne Road agreement, substantial increase for newly qualified teachers. It represented increases of 15% and 22% under that...

Leaders' Questions (28 Sep 2017)

Richard Bruton: The agreement is a cross-Government agreement involving the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. It provides that consideration of the issue of newly-qualified pay will occur within 12 months of the commencement of the agreement, so there is a deadline. Obviously, there will be discussions if some unions wish to move that, but an outer limit of...

Leaders' Questions (28 Sep 2017)

Richard Bruton: As the Deputy is well aware, the announcement on budgetary matters will be made in due course, namely, on 10 October, and no decisions will be indicated until that point. As a result of the re-investment the Government has made in the health service, the number of patients being treated across the system increased by 250,000 per annum in the past four years. This means almost 7,000...

Leaders' Questions (28 Sep 2017)

Richard Bruton: The Deputy has to reflect on what the Government has provided in the past two years. In that time, an additional €1.3 billion has been invested in the health service. It has been the greatest recipient of any resource at a time when we are now able to reinvest. Priority has been given to health by the Government. The Deputy must also recognise that we had a lost decade. I will not...

Leaders' Questions (28 Sep 2017)

Richard Bruton: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. As he outlined, we are providing temporary accommodation - bed, breakfast and board - for almost 5,000 individuals. Every year, approximately 2,000 new applicants come and we try to provide a service for them. The idea behind this accommodation is to provide for people who would otherwise arrive in a very vulnerable condition. There is a limited...

Leaders' Questions (28 Sep 2017)

Richard Bruton: We have 2,000 people per annum presenting with a submission for asylum. These centres are an offer by the State to provide full bed and board, access to utilities, welfare payments and medical facilities. People are not obliged to accept offers and many do not take them up. They represent the State attempting to provide for such people, instead of the 2,000 who come in going onto the...

Leaders' Questions (28 Sep 2017)

Richard Bruton: The Deputy raises a very important issue. There is widespread under-provision in pensions and, as she rightly said, the under-provision is much more acute among women workers than among male workers. While I do not have the figures to hand today, from memory less than half of workers had access to any pension support other than the State contributory scheme. This has been a feature of our...

Leaders' Questions (28 Sep 2017)

Richard Bruton: One has to bear in mind what was done in 2012. The system that prevailed before that meant that someone who perhaps had made 1,000 contributions over his or her entire life could get a 98% pension and someone who had made double those contributions over his or her life would get the same pension. There was an effort to relate more fairly the amount of pension provided to the contribution...

Questions on Promised Legislation (28 Sep 2017)

Richard Bruton: On the industrial dispute, I urge all parties to use the facilities of the Workplace Relations Commission and the Labour Court to try to re-engage. I have had experience as the Minister responsible for this area and even the most intractable disputes can be resolved by their services. They are very experienced and expert. The Government has a huge commitment to public transport. We...

Questions on Promised Legislation (28 Sep 2017)

Richard Bruton: As the Deputy has rightly pointed out, the programme for Government committed to a pilot scheme to reopen six Garda stations. The Garda was asked to undertake an analysis to identify locations for the pilot scheme. An interim report has been given to the Government. It recommends the opening of Stepaside and indicates that the process could be extended to other locations and that its final...

Questions on Promised Legislation (28 Sep 2017)

Richard Bruton: Obviously, there is a maternity strategy as part of the Holles Street move and the construction of a new national maternity hospital. The Government and the HSE strongly support the principle that mothers should breast-feed their children. We have strategies to support that. I do not know of every individual programme that might be involved, but I know each of them is scrutinised every...

Questions on Promised Legislation (28 Sep 2017)

Richard Bruton: I believe the Citizens' Assembly has made a very valuable contribution. This has been a very divisive issue in Irish society. It has been very helpful for the Citizens' Assembly to have had an opportunity go through evidence and provide a report to the Oireachtas. The Oireachtas will have to make a decision on whether a proposal should be put to the people and, if so, what that proposal...