Results 14,761-14,780 of 15,994 for speaker:Helen McEntee

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Education Policy (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: The SPHE programme is being updated so everything will be up to date, and young people are being asked what is important to them and what they should be discussing. Only last week, I launched a new programme in arts, which has been taken up by about a third of schools at the post-primary level. This is an overall health and well-being programme that brings everything into one place. It can...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: School Admissions (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. At the outset, we have to ensure we have the capacity there for any of these types of new application systems to work. My Department has a very significant capital programme, which is providing additional capacity around the country. Since 2020, €5.8 billion has been invested in our schools, involving the completion of over 1,300 school...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: School Admissions (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: I assure the Deputy we will be building on the two pilots I have mentioned for secondary schools, taking lessons and experience from them, and starting a pilot for the next school year, 2026-27, with the hope and ambition to roll it out further. We need to make sure we have the ability to share as much data as possible so all of our school systems are updated and all the schools in a...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: School Admissions (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: I am aware of this issue because it has been raised previously, including by the Deputy. The information we have in the Department very clearly shows approximately 1,000 pupils move outside Dublin 15 on a daily basis to go to schools in the surrounding areas. This is obviously putting pressure on those schools. The view is the development of the new school, which I know is temporarily...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Schools Building Projects (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: I thank Deputy Boland for raising this question. I acknowledge that she has prioritised this with me and wants to ensure that every child, parent and teacher in her constituency has the resources, supports and indeed the appropriate school buildings he or she requires in the years ahead. I am absolutely committed to working with her and all of the schools in that regard. My role in this...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Schools Building Projects (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: If the Deputies want to send on individual projects, I can follow up to see at what stages they are. It is important to stress that there is record investment going into school buildings. We have 3,000 primary schools and 700 post-primary schools. The priority and focus always has to be to make sure, where additional accommodation is required, that we do this first, if an extension is...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Schools Building Projects (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: I would be happy to see some of these schools with the Deputy. She touched on the importance of not forgetting that the more we invest in schools now, the less they will need later on. New summer works and a climate programme have been announced and will be rolled out. It is important to make sure we are investing in changes to the buildings themselves that will provide efficiencies but...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Schools Building Projects (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: I look forward to working with the Deputy on this project and many others. As she knows, the Department approved the additional school accommodation project for St. Brigids School Cabinteely. The project is devolved for delivery to the school authority and a design team has been appointed to progress the project through the necessary architectural stages of design, statutory approvals,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Schools Building Projects (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: There are often different reasons projects are delayed. It is not always the fault of the Department but there are often design, planning or funding issues. It is important to make sure that funding is managed throughout the year. There are only so many projects that can be progressed at a certain time. The focus and priority is always where additional accommodation is needed. More than...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Schools Building Projects (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: -----it sets out timelines for the different stages and how long they should take.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Schools Building Projects (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: We could look at putting a system in place on the engagement that would then take place with schools when they go beyond the timeline.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Schools Building Projects (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: This is a commonly occurring theme. I am sorry.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Schools Building Projects (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: Insofar as possible, where there are new builds or where schools have to be moved, the Department always attempts to keep some of the play space and to make sure it is not completely taken. The Department also ensures play areas are part and parcel of the development of new builds, be it PE halls inside the school or covered areas for children to be able to use in bad weather or if they do...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: State Examinations (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: I thank the Deputy for raising this question. Reform of the leaving certificate senior cycle is the right thing to do. This is something that will benefit students. Nobody I have spoken to, including those who have concerns or who requested that this be delayed, has said we should not progress this, because everybody acknowledges it is the right thing to do. That is why I am committed to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: State Examinations (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: There is much more in train, which I will outline. A significant amount of work is already under way in that regard.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: State Examinations (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: This is not accelerated. This is something that was committed to ten years ago and it has taken until now to get to the point where it is going to start in September. Given the momentum I have mentioned, it is important we make sure it starts but that we support teachers, unions and students in making sure it happens in the best way possible and that students benefit from it. A number...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: State Examinations (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: -----they use it in the most appropriate way, and that they learn as well when they are using it.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: State Examinations (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: I am absolutely committed to working with teachers and their unions to ensure we get this right. Today, following weeks of engagement with all the unions, I invited the ASTI and the TUI to engage intensively to see what more I can do to support them. Everything I outlined here, from the training and funding that is being provided, the papers that have been outlined, the further training...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Disability Services (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: I thank the Deputy. While the provision of clinical therapy supports to children is the responsibility of the HSE, it is the Government’s ambition to make sure therapies are provided in schools. This was committed to in the programme for Government and it is to build on the work being done through the Department of Education, with a number of teams already in place within our schools...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Disability Services (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: While I cannot give the Deputy a timeline for the doubling of places, I know it is being worked on directly by the Ministers, Deputies Lawless and Carroll MacNeill. The more quickly it can happen, the more quickly we can fill our places overall. The change on qualifications is work that has just started, so the focus and priority have been on outlining what the therapy service will look...