Results 13,561-13,580 of 19,666 for speaker:Norma Foley

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Attendance (21 Sep 2023)

Norma Foley: The Schools Completion Programme, SCP, is a central element of Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) programme, a key policy initiative of my Department to address educational disadvantage at school level. The programme is funded by my Department via Tusla Education Support Service, TESS, who have overall operational responsibility for the programme. At present, management...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Admissions (21 Sep 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 Textbooks (21 Sep 2023)

Norma Foley: Earlier this year, I announced a landmark new scheme which saw the government investing over €50 million in providing free schoolbooks, workbooks and copybooks for pupils. More than 558,000 pupils enrolled in approximately 3,230 primary schools, including over 130 special schools, will benefit from the new scheme this year. The Department currently provides a book grant to all...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Enrolments (21 Sep 2023)

Norma Foley: In circumstances where an alleged financial, enrolment irregularity or fraud is identified or suspected in a school it must be reported promptly to the Department. The Department’s standard policy is to ensure that an investigation is undertaken and that the matter is referred to An Garda Síochána where appropriate. Where a case is reported to An Garda Síochána it...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Administration (21 Sep 2023)

Norma Foley: Under the provisions of the Education Act, 1998 the board of management is the body charged with the direct governance of a school including the charging of fees for any additional supplies provided by the school. In response to the National Payments Plan, the Department took steps from 2014 onwards to address the issue of payments in schools. In late 2017 a central arrangement for...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Uniforms (21 Sep 2023)

Norma Foley: Under the Education Act 1998, all recognised schools are managed by the school board of management on behalf of the schools’ patrons or trustees or the relevant Education and Training Board (known as the management authority). Individual school authorities are responsible for the drawing up of a school policy in relation to the wearing of uniforms. Decisions on changes to school...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (27 Sep 2023)

Norma Foley: I can confirm to the Deputy, that my Department is dealing with one application from a second level school in the Tallaght school planning area, St Aidan's Community School, under the Additional School Accommodation (ASA) scheme, for additional autism classroom accommodation. My Department has agreed a brief with the school with respect to the provision of this accommodation. ...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (27 Sep 2023)

Norma Foley: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the 2022/2023 school year, over 149,000 children, including over 18,000 children with special educational needs, were transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. In addition, school transport scheme services were...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (27 Sep 2023)

Norma Foley: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the 2022/2023 school year, over 149,000 children which includes over 18,000 children with special educational needs, were transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. In addition, school transport scheme services were...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Educational Disadvantage (27 Sep 2023)

Norma Foley: My Department provides a wide range of supports to all schools to support the inclusion of all students and address barriers to students achieving their potential. The OECD review will look at the overall Department policy with regards to resourcing schools, both DEIS and non-DEIS, to support children and young people at risk of educational disadvantage. The OECD review will be...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (27 Sep 2023)

Norma Foley: The large scale capital project for the school referred to by the Deputy is part of a joint campus project with another primary school and a post-primary school.My Department authorised the Design Team to retender the project as the first tranche of tenders were deemed unviable. The Design Team applied for a new planning permission due to a change in the Planning Acts introduced by the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (27 Sep 2023)

Norma Foley: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the 2022/2023 school year, over 149,000 children, including over 18,000 children with special educational needs, were transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. In addition, school transport scheme services were provided...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Administration (27 Sep 2023)

Norma Foley: In accordance with the provisions of the Education Act, 1998 the board of management is the body charged with the direct governance of a school. In managing the school the board is required to comply with the relevant provisions of the Education Act, 1998 and the terms of circulars issued by the Department. Decisions in relation to the school’s starting times and finishing times...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (27 Sep 2023)

Norma Foley: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the 2022/2023 school year, over 149,000 children, including over 18,000 children with special educational needs, were transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. In addition, school transport scheme services were provided...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education Policy (27 Sep 2023)

Norma Foley: Under the provisions of the Education Act, 1998 the Board of Management is the body charged with the direct governance of a school on behalf of the Patron. The principal is responsible for the day-to-day management of the school as set out in sections 22 and 23 of the Education Act. 1998 The body which has statutory responsibility for ensuring that health and safety requirements are met by...

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

Norma Foley: I can confirm to the Deputy, that my Department is in receipt of an application for capital funding, under the Additional School Accommodation (ASA) scheme from the school in question for special class accommodation. The purpose of the Additional Schools Accommodation (ASA) scheme is to ensure that essential mainstream and special education classroom accommodation is available to cater...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Air Quality (26 Sep 2023)

Norma Foley: My Department’s guidance in relation to managing ventilation in a Covid environment sets out the practical steps for improving ventilation and where poor ventilation continues to exist in a particular room/area, air cleaners may be considered as an additional measure in conjunction with other methods of ventilation that are available. This was in line with the Expert Group guidance...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (26 Sep 2023)

Norma Foley: I can confirm to the Deputy, that my Department is in receipt of an application for capital funding, under the Additional School Accommodation (ASA) scheme. The purpose of my Department’s Additional School Accommodation (or ASA) scheme is to ensure that essential mainstream classroom accommodation and accommodation for pupils with special education needs is available to cater for...

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

Norma Foley: I wish to advise that the application referred to has been examined by our Professional & Technical team and they have advised that Emergency Works will fund repair works to the leaks only as an interim measure until a permanent solution can be determined under the Summer Works Scheme. The school have been advised to scale back the scope of works and to have a leak detection test...

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

Norma Foley: Having reviewed the information to hand, since year 2000 to date, I can confirm that my Department has acquired 58 sites at a cost of circa €200m, to facilitate the delivery of second level education institutions. All of the details requested by the Deputy are not readily available within a central repository in my Department. As the Deputy will appreciate, it would involve a very...