Results 5,901-5,920 of 13,291 for speaker:Joe McHugh

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Staff (18 Oct 2018)

Joe McHugh: As the Deputy is aware a key priority for this Government is ensuring that children with special educational needs are supported and given the opportunity to reach their full potential. This Government has significantly increased investment in special education in recent years. Fundingfor special education provision in 2018 will amount to some €1.75 billion, up 43% since 2011 and...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: National Educational Psychological Service Data (18 Oct 2018)

Joe McHugh: As the Deputy may be aware my Department’s National Educational Psychological Service provides educational psychological support to all primary and post-primary schools. This involves direct support in the event of a critical incident, access to national and regional support and development work to build school capacity to support students, access to a NEPS psychologist for responses...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Curriculum (18 Oct 2018)

Joe McHugh: One of the key aims of Junior Cycle Reform was to move from a large number of subjects with heavy curricula examined in a traditional memory based way. After a very detailed consultation process the NCCA recommended a new approach: - limited compulsory subjects around basic literacy and numeracy - 24 statements of learning It is important to say that the 24 statements of learning include...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Contractors (18 Oct 2018)

Joe McHugh: My Department conducts a number of checks to assess the solvency of main contractors prior to the award of a contract on any school building project. These measures are set out in "Section 3: Assessment Criteria" of the Department's QW1 Suitability Assessment Questionnaire and Declaration, which draws from suitability assessment advice provided in the Department of Public Expenditure and...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Staff (18 Oct 2018)

Joe McHugh: The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), for fulfilling the functions of the NCSE Council within a designated area in relation to the identification of and delivery and co-ordination of education services to children with disabilities. The NCSE employs SENOs to provide a nationwide system of local...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Irish Sign Language (18 Oct 2018)

Joe McHugh: The Act provides inter alia that the Minister will establish a scheme for the provision of Irish Sign Language (ISL) classes for the family of deaf children and education and support for children whose primary language is ISL attending recognised schools; and training for teachers of children who are deaf or hard of hearing. The redevelopment of the entire primary school curriculum...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation Provision (18 Oct 2018)

Joe McHugh: The pilot inventory referred to by the Deputy was undertaken previously in respect of school buildings in County Kildare and covered two elements: the geographical information system (GIS) and a detailed analysis of the accommodation and condition reports regarding school buildings. My Department has since scaled the GIS element up to national level and the GIS is utilised in my Department's...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Capitation Grants (18 Oct 2018)

Joe McHugh: I recognise the need to improve capitation funding for schools. I was pleased to provide for a 5% increase in funding for capitation for primary and post primary schools that will apply from the start of the 2019/20 school year. I must be prudent in the context of ongoing budgetary pressures and I have to prioritise where it is not possible to do everything that I would like to do in...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Mental Health Strategies (18 Oct 2018)

Joe McHugh: As the Deputy may be aware, mental health and wellbeing promotion is afforded a high priority and is one of the key goals within my Department’s Action Plan for Education in 2016/19. My Department is strongly supportive of the promotion of wellbeing in our schools and has a key role to play in the promotion of the wellbeing of children and young people in Ireland, in collaboration...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Home School Community Liaison Scheme (18 Oct 2018)

Joe McHugh: All DEIS Urban Primary and DEIS Post Primary schools are currently included in the Home School Community Liaison (HSCL) Scheme, which serves 539 schools. The scheme is delivered by 416 full-time HSCL Coordinators who are teachers in these schools and assigned to HSCL duties either in individual schools or clusters of schools, catering for approximately 156,000 pupils. The impact of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (18 Oct 2018)

Joe McHugh: The Deputy will be aware that a major building project, for the school to which he refers, is included in my Department's Capital Programme. It is acknowledged that this project will involve complex and careful master-planning of the site. A full technical site visit has taken, place by my Department's technical staff, and the project brief for the school is currently being formulated....

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (18 Oct 2018)

Joe McHugh: I wish to advise the Deputy that the current status of large-scale projects, including those in County Kildare, being delivered under the school building programme may be viewed on my Department's website, www.education.ie and this information is updated regularly. In addition, a list of large-scale projects completed from 2010 to date may also be viewed on the website. I also wish to...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (18 Oct 2018)

Joe McHugh: As the Deputy is aware, a building project to provide permanent accommodation for the school in question is included in my Department’s 6 Year Construction Programme. In this regard, the schedule of accommodation for the new school has been finalised and has recently issued to the school authorities for their observation.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (18 Oct 2018)

Joe McHugh: I am aware of the demand for additional special class and special school placements in the North Dublin area. I have asked the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) to provide my Department with a report on current and future identified need in the area so that evidence based decisions may be made on the development of the necessary placements in the area for the short, medium...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Mental Health Strategies (18 Oct 2018)

Joe McHugh: Within my Department’s Action Plan for Education in 2016/19 mental health and wellbeing promotion is afforded a high priority and is one of the key goals. My Department is strongly supportive of the promotion of positive mental health awareness in both primary and post-primary schools. The Department adopts a holistic and integrated approach to supporting schools in promoting positive...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: DEIS Eligibility (18 Oct 2018)

Joe McHugh: As the Deputy will be aware, my Department introduced an objective, statistics based model for assessing which schools merit inclusion in the DEIS Programme in 2017, so that all stakeholders can have confidence that we are targeting extra resources at those schools with the highest levels of concentrated disadvantage. This model uses data supplied by schools to my Department's Primary...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (18 Oct 2018)

Joe McHugh: As the Deputy will be aware, my Department has provided a comprehensive update to the Education Committee of which he is a member on 30 September last and has committed to do so on a regular basis with regard to the status of the 42 new schools to be provided over the next 4 years (2019 to 2022). The current focus for my Department is to prioritise the 17 schools opening in 2019 so that...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Admissions Entry Requirements (18 Oct 2018)

Joe McHugh: The Department of Education and Skills was not made aware of the change of policy by UCD, in imposing a deadline of 30 September for acceptance of new entrants. There is no onus on UCD, given its autonomous nature, to advise the DES on its admissions procedures, for which the university itself has legal responsibility. Officials of my have Department meet with the State Examinations...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: National Development Plan (18 Oct 2018)

Joe McHugh: The National Development Plan (NDP) provides for an €8.4 billion investment in school buildings over the period 2018 to 2027 to deliver on NDP and National Planning Framework objectives through addressing the twin priorities of catering for demographics and ensuring a strengthened focus on refurbishment of existing school stock. This investment will result in an almost doubling of the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (18 Oct 2018)

Joe McHugh: I can inform the Deputy that my Department introduced a new model of teacher allocation to support pupils with special educational needs in our schools following a pilot which demonstrated strong support from principals, teachers and parents. The new model differs significantly from the old Resource Allocation Model, as schools are now front-loaded with additional resources based on the...