Results 11,101-11,120 of 19,632 for speaker:Norma Foley

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (26 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: The Department of Education is engaging with education stakeholders about the difficulty being experienced by schools in accessing substitutes for teacher absences at this time. It is recognised that there are continuing pressures in this area. As part of a broad range of measures being progressed to address immediate issues, the Junior Cycle for Teachers (JCT) support service has deferred...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Admissions (26 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: As the Deputy will be aware, for school planning purposes, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas and utilises a Geographical Information System to anticipate school place demand. Information from a range of sources, including Child Benefit data, school enrolment data and information on residential development activity is used for this purpose. Additionally, Project...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (26 Jan 2023)

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.At Post-Primary level, following discussions between the relevant stakeholders a voluntary redeployment scheme has...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (26 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year over 147,900 children, including over 18,000 children with special educational needs, are transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. In addition, school transport scheme services are being...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Refurbishment (26 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: My Department recognises the importance of the Minor Works Grant to primary schools. The funding provides good flexibility at local level to assist schools to manage and undertake works that support the operation of the school. I can confirm to the Deputy that the Minor Works Grant for primary schools for the current school year was paid in December 2021 - in order to give schools a...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (26 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: I can confirm to the Deputy, that my Department received an application for capital funding, under the Additional School Accommodation (ASA) scheme, from the school in question. My Departments Professional and Technical staff are currently carrying out a technical assessment to determine if the special classes can be accommodated in the school building. On completion of the assessment...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (26 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: I can confirm to the Deputy, that my Department received an application for capital funding, under the Additional School Accommodation (ASA) scheme, from the school in question. This application is under consideration by my officials. On completion of the assessment process a decision will be relayed directly to the school authorities.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education Policy (26 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: I would like to thank the Deputy for his question on the provision of homework. It would not be appropriate to comment on the office of the President. The Department acknowledges that homework can play an important part in helping students to prepare for forthcoming classwork and in reinforcing work already covered during class time, however, it is a matter for each school, at local...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (26 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: I wish to advise the Deputy that my Department has informed the school patron that the accommodation brief for the building project in question is being prepared and that my Department will be in further contact with the patron when this process has been completed.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (26 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year over 147,900 children, including over 18,000 children with special educational needs, are transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. In addition, school transport scheme services are being...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teacher Training (31 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: The current requirements for Gaeltacht Learning Periods (GLPs) for primary Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes takes the form of 2 x 2 week placements, which are outlined in the Teaching Council’s Céim: Standards for Initial Teacher Education. Budget 2020 provided for the re-instatement of the grant to cover the full cost of the Gaeltacht Learning Periods (GLPs) for...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Admissions (31 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: As the Deputy will be aware, for school planning purposes, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas and utilises a Geographical Information System to anticipate school place demand. Information from a range of sources, including Child Benefit data, school enrolment data and information on residential development activity is used for this purpose.  Additionally,...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Public Sector Staff (31 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: The criteria for the award of incremental credit to recognised teachers was agreed under the auspices of the Teachers Conciliation Council (TCC).  This Council is comprised of representatives of teachers, school management, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Department of Education.  The Council is chaired by an official of the Workplace Relations Commission. ...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Health and Safety (31 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: I would like to inform the Deputy that the Department has received substantial documentation from the school in question regarding its current accommodation.  This documentation is currently being reviewed and both the long-term and short-term accommodation needs at the school are being considered.  The Department will be in contact with the school in this respect in due course, and...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Projects (31 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: I can confirm to the Deputy, that my Department recently received a further application from the school in question, under the Additional School Accommodation (ASA) scheme. My officials have been liaising with the school in respect of their applications for admission and the proposed building works. The school's application under the ASA scheme is currently being assessed and once the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Legal Services Regulation (31 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: As outlined in my response of 18 January, the ex gratia scheme was originally established in 2015 and was put in place to provide those, who had instituted legal proceedings against the State in respect of day school sexual abuse and subsequently discontinued those proceedings following rulings in the domestic courts and were therefore left without a remedy, with an opportunity to apply...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Data (31 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: As set out in the Programme for Government, this Government is committed to developing inclusive and age appropriate curricula for RSE and SPHE across primary and post-primary schools. In giving effect to this commitment, the Department of Education’s first focus has been on the development of inclusive and age-appropriate curricula and it continues to work closely with the National...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Funding (31 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: The project to which the Deputy refers has been devolved to the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA) for delivery as part of a programme of school building projects. The brief for this project is to provide an extension and refurbishment to the existing school building to accommodate a long term projected enrolment of 1,000 pupils. The project will also provide a 2 classroom Special...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Staff (31 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: There are two special advisers employed by my Department who have been re-appointed to the positions they held prior to my reappointment as Minister for Education in December 2022.  The salary scale for a Special Adviser to a Minister is the same as the Civil Service Principal Officer pay scale, under the terms of the Guidelines for Ministerial Appointments to the 33rd Dáil. The...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Projects (31 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: The permanent school building project for the school referred to by the Deputy has been assigned to my Department’s Design & Build delivery programme.  The final grant of planning permission for the project was received in March 2021. This campus project will deliver a 1,000 pupil post-primary school for the school referred to by the Deputy as well as a 16 classroom...