Results 38,281-38,300 of 46,575 for speaker:Simon Harris

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Research and Development (2 Jun 2022)

Simon Harris: I propose to take Questions Nos. 330, 331 and 332 together. The Programme for Government Our Shared Future includes a commitment to ensure that Ireland is a global leader in research and innovation across the arts, humanities, social sciences and STEM. Consequently, Impact 2030: Ireland's Research and Innovation Strategy was published recently and positions research and innovation at the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (2 Jun 2022)

Simon Harris: My Department provides funding on an annual basis to the Student Assistance Fund (SAF) to assist students who are unable to meet costs associated with day-to-day participation in higher education. The core funding allocation for the SAF is €9.1m. This includes €1 million of ring-fenced core funding allocated in 2017 for the support of part-time students who...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (2 Jun 2022)

Simon Harris: The main focus of the report to which the Deputy refers is on education in the context of primary and post-primary, although it does refer to the promotion of collaboration at further and higher education, as well as research and innovation. I was struck by its message of the common challenges facing systems North and South, and how the promotion of collaboration and shared practice is...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (2 Jun 2022)

Simon Harris: An Annual Student Contribution (ASC) is levied on all students attending Institutes of Technology (IoTs) and Technological Universities.  The amount of ASC charged to apprentices is calculated on a pro rata basis, according to the time which they spend in the institution during the academic year. In cases where training is delivered in an Education and Training Board there is no...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (2 Jun 2022)

Simon Harris: The information requested by the Deputy on the the estimated cost to the Exchequer of providing defined minimum allowances  for off-the-job training is currently being collated and will be sent to the Deputy as soon as it is available.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (2 Jun 2022)

Simon Harris: The information requested by the Deputy on the estimated cost to the Exchequer of a ten percent increase in the apprentice travel allowance and accommodation allowance for off-the-job training is currently being collated and will be sent to the Deputy as soon as it is available.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (2 Jun 2022)

Simon Harris: The information requested by the Deputy on the average annual cost of craft apprentice allowances to the Exchequer is currently being collated and will be sent to the Deputy as soon as it is available.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (2 Jun 2022)

Simon Harris: I propose to take Questions Nos. 339 and 340 together. The revised National Development Plan (NDP) provides for Exchequer investment of nearly €2.9 billion in further and higher education infrastructure, research and innovation over the five-year period 2021–2025. This is in addition to infrastructure to be delivered by way of Public Private Partnership (PPP),...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (2 Jun 2022)

Simon Harris: The Higher Education Public Private Partnership (PPP) Programme comprises eleven building projects in the Higher Education sector. The Programme is broken into two bundles with Bundle 1 comprising six projects, currently at preferred tenderer stage and Bundle 2 comprising five projects, currently at competitive dialogue (pre-tender submission) stage. These projects will play an important role...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Accommodation (2 Jun 2022)

Simon Harris: I am acutely aware of the difficulties faced by students in relation to obtaining affordable accommodation. There are fundamental underlying issues with housing supply more generally and there is a need to increase the supply of all types of accommodation including student accommodation. That is why Government launched Housing for All led by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (2 Jun 2022)

Simon Harris: The university sector collects full economic costing data .The full economic cost of each student enrolled as an undergraduate student will vary depending on the discipline.   The estimated total cost per undergraduate nursing, occupational therapy, physiotherapy student is c.€10,000 – €11,000 per student per year. The estimated total cost of educating an...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Provision of Education Supports for Ukrainian Students (1 Jun 2022)

Simon Harris: I thank the Chairman. I will go through my statement because there is information within it that I want to share with colleagues. I will go through it quickly if that is okay with the Chairman. I thank the committee for having me and my officials here today. Like the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, and their officials, we are working...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Provision of Education Supports for Ukrainian Students (1 Jun 2022)

Simon Harris: The Deputy has hit on a really valid point. We have to recognise that every student is going to be in a different scenario. That is the beauty - if I can call it that - of this national line and contact point. Students can come in have a conversation, say that they were a third-year engineering student, to take a random example, and ask where they fit in the education system, what their...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Provision of Education Supports for Ukrainian Students (1 Jun 2022)

Simon Harris: I will send the clerk to the committee a detailed note on MSCA4Ukraine. It will be done through the Irish Universities Association. I will get Deputy Ó Cathasaigh more detail on that. My best answer on the difference in the figures, about which the Deputy is right, is that the larger figure is the number of people who we know fall within an age group that may well be in third level...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Provision of Education Supports for Ukrainian Students (1 Jun 2022)

Simon Harris: Deputy Ó Cathasaigh better make sure that happens.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Provision of Education Supports for Ukrainian Students (1 Jun 2022)

Simon Harris: Somebody should probably agree on my behalf as well.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Provision of Education Supports for Ukrainian Students (1 Jun 2022)

Simon Harris: Yes, it is an important point. It will be paid for in the same way that an Erasmus+ student is paid. They will be Erasmus+ students for all intents and purposes. Support is paid for through the Erasmus+ office in any given higher education instruction. We have to update the Government and subject to the Government decision, we will make this information available through the helpline. I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Provision of Education Supports for Ukrainian Students (1 Jun 2022)

Simon Harris: Yes. I can give the Deputy a note on this. The first answer is, to be very honest, that we do not, nor could we, have a full sense of the total demand. Deputy Ó Cathasaigh got to the heart of that. We know that more than 3,000 of these people are within the age group that might be considered the typical college-going age. However, only a fraction of that number so far has even...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Provision of Education Supports for Ukrainian Students (1 Jun 2022)

Simon Harris: -----because that is not what we are about. To return to the point I raised with Deputy Alan Farrell, there will also potentially be a significant proportion of students who will want to keep doing their Ukrainian programme. Quite a number of universities in Ukraine provide online education. Therefore, they will be relying on our colleges for support, wrap-around services and additional...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Provision of Education Supports for Ukrainian Students (1 Jun 2022)

Simon Harris: It is both. This has been passed to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, which is co-ordinating accommodation. In the first instance, my Department wrote to all of the universities, higher education institutions to ask them to help and to ask them what they could do. Approximately 1,000 beds came through that exercise. A further exercise was done and...