Results 34,881-34,900 of 46,522 for speaker:Simon Harris

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Contracts (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science has not entered into any contacts with public relations agencies or consultants.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Admissions (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: Universities and Institutes of Technology are autonomous and determine their own procedures for admission. The CAO process applications for undergraduate, and some postgraduate, courses on their behalf. Decisions on admissions are made by the higher education institutions who then instruct the CAO to make offers to successful candidates. Therefore neither I nor my Department have a...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Staff (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: A transfer of functions order will be made later in the month in respect of functions transferring between the Department of Education and the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation to the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. Once the transfer of functions is completed and the formal transfer of staff has taken place an organisation chart...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: I congratulate Deputy Kehoe on his appointment as Chairman of this committee, which covers not only education but also further and higher education, research, innovation and science. I am delighted to be here today and to be joined by my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Collins. I am conscious that the most recent CAO offers, the so-called round four, came out approximately an...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for raising these matters and for acknowledging that we have put many extra places into the college system. It is our job to keep those places as we know the demographic pressures that will come on this sector. I welcome his comments on apprenticeships and we could do with learning from the Deputy's expertise on the matter. The Deputy is correct in his comments on...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: I look forward to working with the Deputy as well. I am very conscious that this pandemic disadvantaged every peer group. The Deputy could quite rightly point to the students of 2020, who have gone through a very stressful year, as have the 2019 students. I will not use the Deputy's time but I took legal advice on the matter. It was not possible, according to that advice, to ring-fence...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: I noted the Deputy's statement last week, when she rightly put it to me in a very reasonable and constructive way to provide places and ensure every student who was wrongly downgraded by the calculated grades error got a place. They did. Maybe we would have a different conversation if they did not. The Deputy is making a point that is not unreasonable, which is that some students got an...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: I do not want to use the Deputy's time but she has said people are sitting at home in a really bad state. We should focus on that. I say to people that there are so many routes to getting where they want to go. We need to be able to promote and highlight that. More people are starting university this year than in any previous year. On top of that, there are many other routes for students...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: My colleague, the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, met with the Union of Students in Ireland, USI, on this important issue. I can assure the committee that the USI is also engaging regularly with me on this matter. There are two parts to the question and the answer. One cohort of students lives in college-owned accommodation. My very clear message to colleges is that I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: I fully agree. I know the Deputy will agree that the private providers need to show a bit of decency. I will continue to work with the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government on that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: Appeals are a matter for the Department of Education and Skills, but I understand that process is due to conclude this month. I know everyone would like to conclude it as quickly as possible. I do not have a specific date but the Department of Education and Skills may be able to provide one. My job and that of my Department is to provide people with places if they make successful appeals....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: I thank Senator Dolan. I feel a bit inadequate answering her question having been reminded of her impressive CV in these areas. I look forward to working with her. The Senator and I have spoken about the apprenticeship issue before. Finance is an important aspect and the funding has been widely welcomed, but it is only one piece of this. I accept that we need to do more. The...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: Ireland is doing very well out of European research funding. In recent days we passed the milestone of €1 billion in net contributions from Horizon 2020. That is a real credit to the research community and ecosystem that exists in Ireland. I want to acknowledge that. Really transformational stuff is happening there. The Covid-19 pandemic made the benefits of research very...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Ó Cathasaigh. On further education, it is not by accident that it is in the title. This Department was briefly, for about 24 hours, called the Department of higher education, research and innovation or something like that but it must be further and higher education and we need that to be seamless. On Brexit, my understanding is that the figure of 200 refers to those...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: There are three elements to the connectivity cost. We cannot just tell people to study online and leave them at it; we obviously need to support them. The first step is buying the hardware and the Deputy has acknowledged that spending. Approximately 17,000 laptops have been purchased and distributed. That has gone well but we need to continue to do more on that front, including in further...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: If the Deputy sends me the details, I will check it out.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: I genuinely acknowledge the amount of work done by the Deputy on literacy and adult literacy in particular. This is a major issue. All of us have personal experience in our families and communities of how this can be a real barrier to participation. When we talk about basic literacy, we are talking about people not being able to read a Panadol box. and in terms of basic numeracy, we are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: I do not wish to encroach on the space of the Minister for Education and Skills but as a member of the Government and somebody whose Department has a direct role in what happens after the leaving certificate examination, we may not disagree as much as the Deputy thinks in this regard. We might disagree on what we call it but the idea that we would not review and learn in relation to this...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: It is an important issue in relation to Covid. I do not know whether it is a good or a bad thing that the Minister with responsibility for further and higher education was a Minister for Health but I can assure students and staff that I will take a very cautious approach to the issue of on-site attendance in the interests of people’s health. I have met the unions and will be meeting...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: I thank the Senator. I want to make sure I say as clearly as the Senator did that there is a huge "Thank you and congratulations" due to the higher education sector. We in this room can and do call for things but the amount of graft that has been undertaken in the last week in particular and over the past few months, has been incredible and I want to acknowledge that. We are going to get...