Results 14,061-14,080 of 17,531 for speaker:Jan O'Sullivan

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Staffing (17 Nov 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: I wish to advise the Deputy that the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs) for allocating resource teachers and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) to schools to support children with special educational needs. The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support. The...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Data (18 Nov 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 provides for a range of supports and services including additional learning and resource teaching support, Special Needs Assistant (SNA) support, special transport arrangements, building...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Staffing (18 Nov 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: I wish to advise the Deputy that the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), for allocating resource teachers and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) to schools to support children with special educational needs. The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support. The...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (18 Nov 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: I wish to draw the Deputy's attention to my announcement yesterday of the new Construction Programme, for 2016-2021, which aims to prioritise new building projects and major extensions, including special schools, in areas where significant demographic need has been established. The new Programme also provides for devolved funding for additional classrooms for schools outside the plan where...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: State Examinations (18 Nov 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. In view of this I have forwarded your query to the State Examinations Commission for direct reply to you.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Application Numbers (18 Nov 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: I am informed by SUSI that the grants processing position as at 8 November, 2015 is as follows: - SUSI has received 107,720 (65,592 New and 42,128 Renewal) student grant applications for the 2015/16 academic year of which 16,500 were received after the Priority Processing Closing dates; - 81,600 (76%) applications have been processed to completion, of which 66,200 applications have been...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: SOLAS Training and Education Programmes Provision (18 Nov 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: There is a target of 6,000 places to be made available in the current round of Momentum. I understand that Programmes are currently providing up to 5,700 additional training and education places to the long-term unemployed and it is expected that the remaining 300 places will be made available over the coming months. The current expectation is that the Momentum programme will spend the full...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teacher Training Provision (18 Nov 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: As part of the Government's budgetary considerations and the Comprehensive Expenditure Review in 2011, a decision was made to abolish the payment of the grants by my Department towards the cost of student teachers' attendance at Gaeltacht courses. The grant of €637 per student per 3 week course was paid directly to the Gaeltacht Colleges by my Department. The decision came into effect...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (18 Nov 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The Department's policy is that students with Special Educational needs including Autism should be included in mainstream schools unless this is not in their best interests or the interests of those with whom the are to be educated. Some Students with more complex Special Educational Needs may be supported in a special class in a mainstream school. They have the option where appropriate of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Extra Curricular Activities (18 Nov 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: In general, school authorities have a considerable degree of autonomy in relation to how their premises are managed and utilised at local level. It should also be noted that the vast majority of primary school buildings in the country are in private ownership. My Department has a general policy of encouraging the use of school facilities by community and other groups where this is possible....

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (19 Nov 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: As the Deputy is aware, I announced details on Tuesday, 17th November last, of the major school building projects that are scheduled to proceed to construction over the next six years, as part of the Government's €2.8 billion capital investment programme. I am pleased to advise the Deputy that a project for the school to which she refers was included in this announcement. ...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Applications (19 Nov 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 209 and 223 together. As part of a comprehensive customer service and communications strategy provided by Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI), to ensure that all necessary avenues are open to applicants to receive the information they need, a dedicated email and phone line service is provided by SUSI for Oireachtas members. This was established to meet...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Funding (19 Nov 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: My Department will review the application of the appeals process in relation to the school referred to by the Deputy and revert to the school should there be a requirement.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (19 Nov 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: I am pleased to advise the Deputy that my Department has approved funding to the school in question for additional accommodation. This decision has been conveyed to the school.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Placement (19 Nov 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: I wish to advise the Deputy that the matter of enrolment in individual schools is the responsibility of the managerial authority of those schools. My Department's main responsibility is to ensure that schools in an area can, between them, cater for all pupils seeking places in an area. This may result, however, in some pupils not obtaining a place in the school of their first choice. My...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Funding (19 Nov 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: As part of the budgetary process in November 2011 a Government decision was taken to concentrate available educational capital resources on delivering school places and to restrict investment in higher education infrastructure to legally binding contractual commitments that existed at that time. The project referred to by the Deputy had not reached the point of being a legally binding...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Universal Support Ireland Administration (19 Nov 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: Student Grant Scheme Appeals (19 Nov 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: For student grants purposes, students are categorised according to their circumstances either as students dependent on parents or a legal guardian, or as independent mature students. A student may be assessed as an independent mature student if he or she has attained the age of 23 on the 1 January of the year of first entry to an approved course or of re-entry following a break in studies...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Data Protection (19 Nov 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: Both privacy and data protection issues were considered and addressed in the development of both the Primary Online Database and the Post-Primary Online Database. However formal privacy impact assessments were not used in the development of these databases.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staffing Appeals Mechanism (19 Nov 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The criteria used for the allocation of teachers to primary schools is published annually on the website of the Department of Education and Skills. 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. An appeals process is available to small...