Results 9,481-9,500 of 19,632 for speaker:Norma Foley

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Education and the UNCRPD: Discussion (Resumed) (20 Sep 2022)

Norma Foley: I will start with the last question regarding school transport. The waiving of school transport fees was introduced as a cost-of-living measure. This time last year over 103,000 children in mainstream education were availing of it. Presently 124,000 tickets are available free of charge to families. That is an increase of over 20% of children availing of the school transport system. That...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Education and the UNCRPD: Discussion (Resumed) (20 Sep 2022)

Norma Foley: The review of the Act is ongoing. It is our expectation that it will be completed in early 2023. There is a body of work ongoing in that regard and as Deputy Canney has said, it is the appropriate time to review it with a child-centred and child access approach at its centre. The review should be completed in early to mid-2023.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Education and the UNCRPD: Discussion (Resumed) (20 Sep 2022)

Norma Foley: I thank the Senator. On the learning needs of all pupils and meeting the pupils at the place that you find them, I could not agree more. That fits in with the point the Senator raised as regards initial teacher education and what that involves in terms of inclusive education. That specifically involves meeting the learning needs of each individual student and meeting them at the place that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Education and the UNCRPD: Discussion (Resumed) (20 Sep 2022)

Norma Foley: I thank the Chair. I have already outlined I am very committed to expanding summer provision to the widest of its capacity. I appreciate the Chair has a particular interest in that. There is significant interest and commitment at this committee regarding the expansion of summer provision. As I said, a body of work is under way to see how we can improve and enhance it even more for next...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Education and the UNCRPD: Discussion (Resumed) (20 Sep 2022)

Norma Foley: For sure. I apologise to Deputy Canney. I should have referenced that myself. It is the absolute objective that the closer we can bring transport to a child's immediate home, the better. A body is work is there. We are coming from a base that did not always provide for that transport, but it is the objective. It can be seen from the way we are growing the special classes that we are...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (22 Sep 2022)

Norma Foley: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department. In the last school year over 121,400 children, including over 15,500 children with special educational needs, were transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country at a cost of over €289m in 2021. In July 2022, Government announced...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Costs (22 Sep 2022)

Norma Foley: There are no plans to partially or fully close schools for the reasons referred to by Deputy. My Department provides funding to all recognised schools in the Free Education Scheme by way of per capita grants. The two main grants are the Capitation grant to cater for day to day running costs including heating, lighting etc. and the Ancillary grant to cater for the cost of employing ancillary...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (22 Sep 2022)

Norma Foley: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department. In the last school year over 121,400 children, including over 15,500 children with special educational needs, were transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country at a cost of over €289m in 2021. In July 2022, Government...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (22 Sep 2022)

Norma Foley: The property in question, a former school, is not in the ownership of my Department. My Department has established current and future permanent accommodation requirements in the area in question. The property referred to by the Deputy is under consideration to meet some of these requirements and my Department has been in discussions with the owners of the particular building in this regard.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (22 Sep 2022)

Norma Foley: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department. In the last school year over 121,400 children, including over 15,500 children with special educational needs, were transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country at a cost of over €289m in 2021. In July 2022, Government announced...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (22 Sep 2022)

Norma Foley: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department. In the last school year over 121,400 children, including over 15,500 children with special educational needs, were transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country at a cost of over €289m in 2021. In July 2022, Government announced...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education and Training Boards (22 Sep 2022)

Norma Foley: Education Shared Business Services (ESBS) is a stand-alone section that comes under the remit of the Department of Education. The ESBS has been set up to host some of the Shared Service operations to be provided directly by the Department under its Shared Services Plan. 12 ETBs have now migrated their Payrolls to ESBS with LCETB in line to become the 13th ETB to migrate their Payroll to...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (22 Sep 2022)

Norma Foley: The Dept. is in contact with the school in respect of this matter, and the Dept. are assisting the school in progressing the project.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (22 Sep 2022)

Norma Foley: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department. In the last school year over 121,400 children, including over 15,500 children with special educational needs, were transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country at a cost of over €289m in 2021. Under the terms of my Department's...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Pupil-Teacher Ratio (22 Sep 2022)

Norma Foley: The pupil-teacher ratio for mainstream classes in primary schools in 2021/2022, the most recent year for which we have data, was 22.8. This figure only accounts for mainstream teachers in mainstream classes, and special education teachers working in mainstream classrooms are excluded.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Pupil-Teacher Ratio (22 Sep 2022)

Norma Foley: The pupil-teacher ratio in post-primary schools in 2021/2022, the most recent year for which we have data, was 12.2. There is currently no means of identifying post-primary pupils in special classes on the Post-Primary Online Database, and therefore the stated pupil-teacher ratio includes all pupils and teachers at post-primary level.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (22 Sep 2022)

Norma Foley: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department. In the last school year over 121,400 children, including over 15,500 children with special educational needs, were transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country at a cost of over €289m in 2021. In July 2022, Government announced...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Costs (22 Sep 2022)

Norma Foley: My Department provides funding to all recognised schools in the Free Education Scheme by way of per capita grants. The two main grants are the Capitation grant to cater for day to day running costs including heating, lighting etc. and the Ancillary grant to cater for the cost of employing ancillary services staff. These grants may be regarded as a common grant from which the Board of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (22 Sep 2022)

Norma Foley: The core function of the redeployment arrangements is to facilitate the redeployment of surplus permanent teachers to other schools where vacancies exist. Ensuring efficiency in the annual redeployment processes is significant in terms of managing the overall teacher numbers. Following discussions between the relevant stakeholders a voluntary redeployment scheme has operated on a pilot basis...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: School Transport Issues: Engagement with Minister for Education (21 Sep 2022)

Norma Foley: The Senator is correct that there are two motivations here, but the cost of living is the primary one. Climate action is very much part of the root and branch analysis of the current system.