Results 12,161-12,180 of 17,531 for speaker:Jan O'Sullivan

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Staff (6 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: I have welcomed the response of NUI Galway in unreservedly accepting the ruling of the Equality Tribunal last November in the case of Dr Micheline Sheehy Skeffington, and in establishing a Task Force to address related issues. Discrimination against women in the workplace is unacceptable in any setting and the issues brought to light in that case are of serious concern to me. The...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Refurbishment (6 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The management authorities of the school referred to by the Deputy submitted an application for funding under my Department's Emergency Works Scheme for yard works. As the scope of works for which funding is sought is outside the scope of the scheme it cannot be considered for funding. The management authority has been informed of this decision. The school authority has recently been advised...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staffing Appeals Mechanism (6 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The criteria used for the allocation of teachers to schools is published annually on the Department's website. The key factor for determining the level of staffing resources provided at individual school level is the staffing schedule for the relevant school year and pupil enrolments on the previous 30 September. The staffing arrangements for the coming school year 2015/16 are set out in...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: State Examinations (6 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The State Examinations Commission has statutory responsibility for operational matters relating to the certificate examinations. The State Examinations Commission operates a scheme of Reasonable Accommodations in the Certificate examinations. Applications for such accommodations are submitted by schools on behalf of their students. Full details of the scheme are available for downloading...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Facilities (6 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The needs of the College will be considered in the context of budgetary resources and having regard to competing demands.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Schemes (6 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: Eligibility for assistance from Caranua is confined to those who received awards from the Redress Board or equivalent Court awards or settlements. This approach was taken having regard to the maximum funds available of €110 million and a potential pool of some 15,000 applicants. I intend to consider the question of a review of the arrangements relating to eligibility later this year...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (6 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: I wish to confirm that the school referred to by the Deputy recently submitted an application for funding for the provision of a link corridor. As the Deputy will appreciate, due to the competing demands on my Department's capital budget imposed by the need to prioritise the funding available for the provision of essential school classroom accommodation, it is not possible to provide an...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Refurbishment (6 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The project referred to by the Deputy is currently completing the Design Team appointment stage. The Tender competition for the Design Team appointment has concluded and the Board of Management have finalised the assessment of the tenders received. Letters of Intent and feedback letters have recently issued to all Tenderers and subject to no issues arising the formal appointment of the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Eligibility (6 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: Article 24(6) of the Student Grant Scheme 2015 provides that gifts or inheritances received in the reference period will be included as reckonable income. If any of the persons whose income is under consideration received a gift or an inheritance in the reference period, these are included in reckonable income, unless in the case of an independent student, the gift or inheritance was...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Enrolments (6 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The Deputy will be aware that my Department's current five-year construction plan is focused on meeting demographic demands to ensure that every child will have access to a physical school place and that our school system is in a position to accommodate increasing pupil numbers. In that regard, it is also open to schools to submit applications for funding under my Department's additional...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Applications (6 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: I wish to advise the Deputy that the school, in question, has been provided with contact details to facilitate the school's liaison with my Department's Building Unit in relation to its building project. I also wish to advise the Deputy that my Department has written in recent days to the school concerned in respect of their immediate accommodation requirements.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (6 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: I wish to advise the Deputy that some €1.37 billion will be spent in support of children with Special Educational Needs this year, which represents approximately 15% of my Department's budget. This has provided for the allocation of over 11,000 resource and learning support teaching posts which will be the highest level of resource teaching allocations that we have ever had, and will...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Momentum Programme (6 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The Momentum programme is funded through an innovative performance funding model, whereby funds are only transferred by SOLAS to relevant education and training providers upon achievement of certain milestones. In traditional payment models, the State is responsible for the entire programme costs. In Momentum, the provider shares the risk so that, for example, where participants drop out the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Higher Education Institutions Expenditure (6 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The reality of the economic situation and the public expenditure corrections which had to be made in recent years presented challenges across all areas of public expenditure, including in higher education institutions such as the National College of Art and Design (NCAD). Higher education institutions such as NCAD are autonomous bodies and have responsibility for their own day to day...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (6 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The Deputy will be aware that I recently announced that additional resources will be allocated to schools, as an interim measure, to support those children with Down syndrome, who are not already supported through the National Council for Special Education's (NCSE) low incidence resource teaching annual allocation process. I advised that this measure was being introduced in recognition of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Courses Availability (6 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: Under the Universities Act 1997 University College Cork is an autonomous statutory institution and its authorities are responsible for the internal deployment of resources within the University. My Department is currently in the process of drafting a Strategy on Foreign Languages in Education which will recognise the importance of foreign languages.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Eligibility (6 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: Student grant applications are means tested on gross income from all sources earned inside and outside the State within a specified reference period. The means test arrangements of the Student Grant Scheme are applied nationally on the same basis to both employed and self-employed applicants. Gross income before the deduction of income tax or universal social charge, is assessed with...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Pupil-Teacher Ratio (6 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: I wish to advise the Deputy that differing teacher allocation ratios are applied under the General Allocation Model (GAM) in relation to boys, girls and mixed schools in order to account for differentials of prevalence of learning difficulty between boys and girls. The objective of this differentiation is to ensure that resources provided to schools to support children who have additional...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staffing (6 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The criteria used for the allocation of teaching posts is published annually on the Department website. The key factor for determining the level of staffing resources provided at individual school level is the staffing schedule for the relevant school year and pupil enrolments on the previous 30 September. The staffing arrangements also include an appeals mechanism for schools to submit an...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Educational Disadvantage (6 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 514 and 515 together. There are 24 all girls' Primary Urban Band 2 DEIS schools (or considered Girls Schools for GAM/EAL purposes) with a total enrolment of 5,903. If these schools were allocated five hours' learning support per mainstream teachers as opposed to four hours under the current rules of GAM/EAL, this would result in approximately 9 additional...