Results 14,741-14,760 of 19,666 for speaker:Norma Foley

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (12 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: I can confirm to the Deputy that my Department has agreed the need for additional accommodation at the school in question. The school's accommodation will be delivered in two phases. Phase one will see the delivery of accommodation to meet the school’s most immediate needs through the department's modular accommodation framework and will consist of reconfiguration of two science...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (12 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: My Department has very recently received an application from the school to which the Deputy refers, for funding under the Emergency Works Scheme (EWS). This application is currently being assessed by the Department's emergency works team, the school will be kept informed throughout the process.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Priorities (12 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: My Department aims to deliver high quality and inclusive education for all children and young people that addresses their needs, interests and ambitions. Forbairt, the Annual Statement of Priorities for my Department in 2024, will provide a road map to the delivery of the strategic and operational priorities set out in my Department’s Statement of Strategy 2023-2025. The priorities...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Funding (12 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: My Department is committed to providing funding to recognised primary and post-primary schools in the free education scheme by way of per capita grants. The two main grants are the Capitation grant to cater for day to day running costs such as heating, lighting, cleaning, insurance, general up-keep etc. and the Ancillary grant to cater for the cost of employing ancillary services staff....

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (12 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: The school to which the Deputy refers was approved a school building project under my Department's Additional School Accommodation scheme. The project was devolved for delivery to the school authority. The brief for the project is comprised of two mainstream classrooms, and a three classroom SEN base. The project is currently at stage 2b (pre planning stage). My Department is awaiting...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Admissions (12 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: My Department is not in a position to assist with the provision of individual boarding grants for students. However, Tusla Education Support Service can provide support to parents to apply for home tuition if their child is without a school placement. My Department published Circulars 0024/2023 and 0031/2023 on gov.ie - Home Tuition (www.gov.ie) detailing the Home Tuition provisions for...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (12 Dec 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: Home Schooling (12 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: The Irish constitution acknowledges the role of a parent or guardian as the primary educator of their child and has enshrined in law that a parent or guardian may home educate their child or may choose to send their child to a school which is not a recognised school in accordance with section 10 of the Education Act, 1998. While the State cannot oblige parents or guardians to send their...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Admissions (12 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: Section 29 of the Education Act 1998 as inserted by Section 7 of the Education (Admissions to schools) Act 2018 provides for an appeal, where a board of management, or a person acting on behalf of the board of management (normally the school principal) refuses to admit a student to a school, suspends a student for not less than 20 days or permanently excludes a student. Section 29 D of this...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Admissions (12 Dec 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: Pupil-Teacher Ratio (12 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: Budget 2024 has provided for an unprecedented €10.5 billion investment in education, which includes an increase of €421 million in core current funding, as well as over €80 million in core capital funding. An additional €170 million is also being provided as part of Cost of Living and COVID-19 supports. These additional funds build on significant increases in...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education Standards (12 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: The Programme for Government sets out this Government’s intention to continue to develop our educational system to meet the needs of all students and to tackle disadvantage from an early age. Progressing this ambition, while responding to the particular challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in the Ukraine, has been a key priority for my Department since 2020. I am...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Educational Disadvantage (12 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: During my time as Minister for Education I have shown a strong commitment to addressing educational disadvantage. My Department’s Statement of Strategy, sets out the vision and mission of the Department for an educational system where every child and young person feels valued and is actively supported and nurtured to reach their full potential. It sets as a goal to ensure equity of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Funding (12 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: I wish to advise the Deputy that all teachers who are appointed to permanent teaching posts, or fixed term positions in schools, must be teachers who are registered with the Teaching Council. It is also expected that teachers who are working in a substitute capacity, will be registered with the Teaching Council, which includes amongst other things, having a teaching qualification. ...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (12 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: I can advise the Deputy that between 1stSeptember, 2023, and 6thDecember 2023, a total of 356,799 days substitutable leave absences arose in primary schools, in respect of 30,451 teacher absences. A total of 131,449 days substitutable leave absences arose in voluntary or community and comprehensive post primary schools, in respect of 13,819 teacher absences. These figures are subject to...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education and Training Boards (12 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: The Deputy refers to the Kilkenny-Carlow Education Training Board Psychological Service. I wish to clarify that the education psychological service for all schools in the Kilkenny Carlow area is provided by the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) of the Department of Education. The NEPS service provides access for all schools to:Psychological support in the event of a...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (12 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: The Deputy will be aware that a new school building project for the school in question has been recently completed. As the Deputy may be aware, for school planning purposes, the Department of Education divides the country into 314 school planning areas and uses a Geographical Information System (or GIS) to anticipate school place demand. Information from a range of sources, including...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (12 Dec 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 the Additional Schools Accommodation (ASA) scheme is to ensure that essential mainstream and special education classroom accommodation is available to cater for pupils enrolled each year and where the need cannot be met by...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (12 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: As the Deputy is aware, the site identification and assessment exercise for the new Ériu Community College is ongoing. Potential site options have been identified, including a Minister-owned property. The Deputy will appreciate that negotiations in respect of site acquisitions are, by their nature, sensitive and for that reason I am not in a position to provide further information at...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (12 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: I can confirm to the Deputy that my Department and DDLETB agreed in early 2021 to increase the capacity of the school in question to 1,500 places. There was no timeframe determined for this increase but it was expected that there would be a gradual increase in enrolments over a number of years. In order to facilitate an initial increase in enrolments, modular accommodation was provided...