Results 14,481-14,500 of 19,666 for speaker:Norma Foley

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: Yes. Throughout Covid, we followed what was the public health advice. When the public health advice about what was required changed, we obeyed it.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: I am sorry, but I missed that. What did the Deputy say happened?

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: To reply to the first question, Dublin Bus has never been part of the school transport system.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: I appreciate that the cohort of students the Deputy mentioned have been discommoded but we do not have a role in that regard.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: The school transport system is very distinct from that transport scheme. It is not operated by the Department or by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department. I heard what the Deputy said about bus escorts. I am very conscious that these people are hugely important to our system. On the case the Deputy raised where an escort is not available or able to work on a certain day, a sub or...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: I am very pleased to hear that a student will be working with a member of the committee. I would be more than pleased to meet the student who will be working with the Deputy or another member of the committee. I give a commitment to the Deputy that we will convey to her a specific update on the school.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: On solar panels, we launched the solar panels programme last week. The programme will go live on 30 November for the first ten counties. A further eight counties will follow and another eight counties will follow that again, in May and December, I think. All schools will be eligible to apply. There will be 16 panels per school. The initiative means that schools will, for the first time,...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: Schools were not asked to repay any moneys that were given to them during Covid.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: I do not have a figure on the number of schools but I can get back to the Deputy with that information. No school was asked to repay any moneys it was given during Covid unless it had not spent them, if I am making myself clear. No school had to repay any funding it got unless it was surplus to their spend. If schools have money left over, that goes back to the Department but if they spent...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: Yes. The 2024-25 payment will be made in due course. Funding was paid in April.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: The funding was for 2023-24. The 2024-25 payment will be made.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: I do not have the calendar in front of me now but I can say that it was paid in April 2023 for the 2023-24 school year.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: I did not say that. The moneys will come during the 2024-25 school year but the date has not been determined yet. I cannot provide a specific date in 2024 for the payment but it will come in due course. On the question on books being sent to schools, I acknowledge that everybody is very supportive of the scheme. We noted that ebooks can be used. We do not have the capacity to do...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: What we are providing are the textbooks.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: No, we provide the textbooks. Things will evolve over time. We are doing a review of how things have operated at primary level. I have no doubt there will be a review of how things will operate going forward at junior cycle and that will inform us in future. On the needs, particularly in terms of the issue raised by the Deputy, the initiative would probably be more pertinent at junior...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: Yes. There will be a lot of learning from that. We had a certain amount of money at our disposal so we used that to the best of our ability at that time.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: The Deputy is referring to a school in Donegal. There is a capitation grant provided to the school. Where students from Ukraine or wherever, if they have come in particular numbers, there are additional resources, particularly in terms of the EAL or mainstream teaching posts, provided to the school. If a school has a difficulty with the funding it has and is finding it difficult to manage,...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: I am not aware of that ever happening. I can only speak in general. We have the FSSU, the financial services section in the Department, which works on an individual basis with schools. We have schools the length and breadth of the country that are managing. I have seen them because I have visited them. Huge numbers of new students have arrived in schools and they are managing very well...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: I have to come back to the Deputy on that.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (29 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: There is an agreement with the publishers that they will not change their editions before five years have elapsed. If there are specific instances of that not being the case, I would be happy for the Deputy to bring them to me and we will follow them up. The Deputy is 100% correct that it can be something as small as a diagram or additional visual that does not change the essence of what...