Results 14,981-15,000 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Other Questions: School Admissions (19 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: I hope to bring forward this legislation at an early date. Considerable work has been done on it within the Department. The Constitution provides that the State acknowledges that the primary and natural educator is the family and it provides for the rights of parents. It then goes on to say under Article 44 that the State shall not impose any disabilities or discrimination on the grounds...

Other Questions: School Admissions (19 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: General legislation will provide that schools cannot refuse admission to a child on grounds of religious belief. However, if a school is oversubscribed and there are too many children, the current legislation allows it to choose a child of its denomination over a child who is not of that denomination. A school cannot turn away someone because he or she is Muslim or has special needs and so...

Other Questions: Preschool Services (19 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: On the specific preschool referred to by the Deputy, I understand the community facilities provided on the site in question initially provided accommodation for a preschool but that, following its closure, a new preschool has been opened in two classrooms in the school. It should be noted that under Circular 16/05, issued in 2005 on the use of school premises during the school day for...

Other Questions: Preschool Services (19 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: I am very sympathetic to the Deputy's point and believe the Department recognises the value of integrating the service. From a narrow point of view, the Department is committed to having a 24-classroom school to provide the education service which is its responsibility. I believe the difficulty was that no formal request had been made by the school before it opened. Nonetheless, I am...

Other Questions: Preschool Services (19 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: Clearly, I would like to be able to resolve the issue but, equally, I understand my Department has a statutory obligation to provide school places, not preschool places. Given its budget which I know is highly limited - we read in the newspapers about how limited it is - the Department has to concentrate on its statutory responsibility. There are constraints on a Department in providing...

Other Questions: Educational Reform (19 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: As the Deputy will be aware, A Programme for a Partnership Government provides that the role and power of an ombudsman for education, to whom a parent could complain and appeal on foot of a decision made by a board of management, will be examined by the relevant Oireachtas committee to ensure its consistency with the need to ensure better local decision-making and accountability to parents....

Other Questions: Educational Reform (19 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: My ideas are only in development and I do not want to give personal views. We are committing to a charter for parents and we want to see a stronger complaints procedure. We also want to see schools developing the capacity to deal with these problems. I note that, under section 28, guidelines were to be put in place and agreed with schools for dealing with complaints, but section 28...

Other Questions: Educational Reform (19 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: As I understand the existing law, the Department does not have the power to instruct schools to follow a particular course of action in regard to individual complaint cases. The Deputy is referring to a gap where there is no appeals mechanism beyond the board of management. How to structure it is a matter that we will have to tease out in committee to see where such a role should fall, how...

Other Questions: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (19 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: Spending on provision for children with special educational needs has been prioritised in recent years, despite the enormous pressures on the public finances. Funding for special education provision in 2016 will amount to €1.4 billion, which is equivalent to approximately 17% of the gross overall current allocation for education and training. This has increased by 10% in the past two...

Other Questions: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (19 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: The purpose of the review is to assess the extent to which the needs are being met. The reply I gave outlined the provision in place and, to be fair, there has been a significant increase in resource teaching, special needs assistants and the number of special classes. The number of pupils served has considerably increased, so far more children with special needs are being supported in our...

Other Questions: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (19 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: There is, of course, always pressure on resources but there is a provision in the admission to schools Bill that it will not be possible for any school to turn away a child on grounds of his or her special needs. That implies a commitment to support children in the schools to which they seek enrolment. The figures speak for themselves. There has been a huge expansion in support services to...

Other Questions: Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools Scheme (19 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: The action plan for educational inclusion, known as DEIS, was published in 2005 and now provides support to 836 schools serving a total of 169,500 pupils. There are 103,233 pupils in 646 schools at primary level and 66,237 students in 190 schools at secondary level. The DEIS programme has been implemented in partnership with schools and other Government Departments and agencies such as...

Other Questions: Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools Scheme (19 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: This is a valuable programme. Just before I came into the Chamber, I was reading some of the evaluation work that has been done on the programme regarding the impact on literacy and so on and clearly it is an area in which I have a very strong personal interest in trying to improve. When I was education spokesman previously, I focused particularly on early school leaving and disadvantage...

Other Questions: Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools Scheme (19 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: I accept what the Deputy said. There is a particular problem regarding children who are disadvantaged but who are not in DEIS schools and that is clearly one of the topics that has been signalled for specific review. That will be examined. Equally, as the Deputy said, there is scope to consider how effective the intervention measures are. It is important not only that we designate schools...

Other Questions: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (19 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: Support from the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, is available to every recognised primary and second-level school in Ireland. NEPS, in consultation with schools, prioritises children for support, consultation and-or assessment who have failed to make adequate progress despite an appropriate continuum of support being delivered for those children. Under its model of service,...

Other Questions: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (19 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: As we discussed earlier, we are approaching this in a number of ways and we are planning to increase the staff in NEPS by 25%. We are also considering the model of allocation of resource teachers to try to move away from the requirement to have these assessments for every child and to move to a situation where the school itself, having regard to the range of children, even those who have not...

Other Questions: Teachers' Remuneration (19 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: The Government has committed to establishing a public service pay commission to examine pay levels across the public service, including the entry pay levels to which the Deputy refers. The Government recognises the importance of being able to attract quality new entrants to the public service, particularly so in important professional areas such as education. The restrictions in entry pay...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teachers' Remuneration (19 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: The Government has committed to establishing a Public Service Pay Commission to examine pay levels across the Public Service, including the entry pay levels to which the Deputy refers. The Government recognises the importance of being able to attract quality new entrants to the Public Service, particularly so in important professional areas like education. The restrictions in entry pay...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Health and Safety (19 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: Schools have a role to play in supporting their students to develop the key skills and knowledge to enable them to make informed choices when faced with a range of difficult issues, including drugs and alcohol. This is mainly done through the Social Personal and Health Education (SPHE) programme, which has a specific module on the use and misuse of a range of substances. Addiction...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools Scheme (19 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: I understand that the school to which the Deputy refers was established on 1 September 2010 and has been the subject of a series of representations to my Department seeking its inclusion in DEIS. These representations were unsuccessful as no school has been admitted to the DEIS programme since 2009. The decision not to admit further schools to the programme was taken in light of the...