Results 35,421-35,440 of 46,522 for speaker:Simon Harris

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Student Grant Scheme (13 Jan 2021)

Simon Harris: The main support available to students is the statutory based Student Grant Scheme administered by SUSI. To qualify for grant support, a student has to meet various criteria such as means, residency, nationality and progression. Approved undergraduate courses for the Student Grant Scheme 2020 are prescribed in the Student Support Regulations 2020 and in the Student Support Act 2011. It is not...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Consultancy Contracts (13 Jan 2021)

Simon Harris: My Department has not outsourced any COVID-19 related work, services or advice to consultancies. However, while we haven’t engaged professional consultancies in relation to our COVID response, my officials have drawn on the considerable public health expertise available in the third level sector and sought advice and assistance on public health issues relevant to the...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Telecommunications Services (13 Jan 2021)

Simon Harris: Eduroam is a service which could benefit all students especially with the increasing move to online education and dependence on broadband accessibility. Eduroam is a mature solution across Irish higher education where the large Education institutions have strong identity management solutions in place. Significant investment in identity management improvements across first and second level...

Covid-19 (Higher Education): Statements (14 Jan 2021)

Simon Harris: With the agreement of the House, I will share my time with the Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins. I welcome the opportunity to update the House on the impact of Covid-19 on the further and higher education sector. I was a little disappointed that, for the first time in my political career, some Members of the Dáil actually voted not to have me here today for questions and...

Covid-19 (Higher Education): Statements (14 Jan 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Conway-Walsh for her time and her work ethic; she has been here for a significant length of time and I am sorry that more Members have not joined us with regard to this higher education discussion. I am not the Minister for Education and I will not go back on that but the questions asked by the Deputy in respect of my own brief are fair and I am more than happy to answer them....

Covid-19 (Higher Education): Statements (14 Jan 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy. I will do my best to get through as many of his questions as possible. I could not agree more with his point about well-being and that the leaving certificate class of 2020 and the first-year college class of 2021 are like no other in terms of all they have been through. I said in my opening statement that I am establishing a new group to monitor well-being and I have...

Covid-19 (Higher Education): Statements (14 Jan 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for his work in advocating the establishment of my Department. I acknowledge the significant work he put into the policy development side of it. I hope we are beginning to see the merits and benefits of the Department. I thank him also for his kind words in regard to the researchers and the work my Department and the HEA are doing in that regard. When we get to the...

Covid-19 (Higher Education): Statements (14 Jan 2021)

Simon Harris: My thanks to the Deputy. I assure him that I am following up on the point he made about bursaries in Cork in this significant year for Cork. The Deputy asked about well-being. In addition to the helpline referenced by him, we have increased mental health funding by €3 million. I appreciate his support in that regard. We have also doubled the student assistance fund. There is...

Covid-19 (Higher Education): Statements (14 Jan 2021)

Simon Harris: I know we are almost out of time. I will write to the Deputy. The short answer is that I will contact NUI Galway. Autonomy cannot be used as a fig leaf for inflexibility. I take the point she makes. In the interest of time, I will write back to her on the remaining matters.

Covid-19 (Higher Education): Statements (14 Jan 2021)

Simon Harris: I always appreciate people helping to advocate investment in higher education, and yes, I will. Last year saw the largest ever increase in the number of higher education places in our country. Many Deputies opposite were rightly concerned, as was I, that that would be a one-year-only investment. We have managed to ensure that all the extra places we put into the third level system last...

Covid-19 (Higher Education): Statements (14 Jan 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Lahart. I read the speech the Taoiseach gave to the Irish Universities Association, IUA. We have joked about how it must be peculiar for a Fine Gael Minister to have read and now praised a then Leader of the Opposition’s speech, but it is a very fine speech. While Deputy Lahart rightly refers to the tremendously positive contribution that the late Seán Lemass...

Covid-19 (Higher Education): Statements (14 Jan 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for her contribution. I agree with much of it. With regard to the SUSI review, she made a fair point about the extra costs that people, particularly from rural communities, have to face. There will be a chance to make submissions and have public consultation on that. I hope to have the review completed in advance of the budget so the House can make the necessary...

Covid-19 (Higher Education): Statements (14 Jan 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for his questions. We were due to have an engagement this week, but I had to cancel for personal reasons. I am looking forward to having that engagement next week. While I would not necessarily agree with all the language he used to set out his position, I take the points he made about the need for better governance structures. To take his second question first, we...

Covid-19 (Higher Education): Statements (14 Jan 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Matthews. I could not agree more with his comments on first-year college students. These are leaving certificate students from last year, who last sat in a classroom in March 2020. Against all the odds and all the challenges, they got themselves into college and now, as he rightly said, they are finding courses being done from the bedroom, the box room or the kitchen table....

Covid-19 (Higher Education): Statements (14 Jan 2021)

Simon Harris: Deputy Mattie McGrath is right to end on a positive note. As tough as this time is, we and the next generation will bounce back from this and we must all support them in that regard. Deputies Michael Collins and Mattie McGrath raised the very important matter of student accommodation and I will make a couple of points on it. With college-owned accommodation, I expect universities and...

Covid-19 (Higher Education): Statements (14 Jan 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Harkin for her questions. My information regarding the Connacht-Ulster alliance and the application for technological university status is the same as the Deputy's. We are expecting that application imminently. My Department, I, as Minister, and the Government are very supportive of it. The north west needs this university which offers really exciting opportunities in terms...

Covid-19 (Higher Education): Statements (14 Jan 2021)

Simon Harris: The answer to the Deputy's final question is "Yes", but I do not hold all of the levers relating to this matter. I could give the Deputy a long answer about how all higher education institutions are autonomous and academically independent. There are, as the Deputy points out, also the professional regulators, including CORU but common sense is needed here. We cannot have a situation where...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Institutes of Technology (14 Jan 2021)

Simon Harris: I propose to take Questions Nos. 157 and 158 together. As the Deputy is aware a Galway Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) Working Group was established in March 2017.  The key objective of this group was to develop a plan to develop a sustainable future for the Mayo Campus arising from concerns about the financial viability of the campus.The Governing Authority of GMIT in consultation...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Strategies (14 Jan 2021)

Simon Harris: Since the establishment of the new Government, my Department has put in place a major funding package to support the higher and further education and training sector through the Covid crisis, including significant additional supports for individual students and learners.   We have significantly expanded training places to support people to reskill and upskill as part of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Erasmus+ Programme (14 Jan 2021)

Simon Harris: The Erasmus+ programme is the main avenue through which my Department and the Higher Education community support studying abroad for third-level students. I am optimistic that opportunities to study abroad under the Erasmus+ programme will continue to be maintained in the 2021-2022 academic year. The European Commission approved the new work programme for Erasmus+ (2021-2028) in December...