Results 15,261-15,280 of 15,994 for speaker:Helen McEntee

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Reviews (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: My Department has a number of ongoing projects to maximise the use of data to ensure evidence-informed policy making across its activities. These projects will harness the potential of data for evidence-based decision making, in line with the Civil Service Renewal 2030 commitment to “develop a rigorous, professional, and evidence-informed approach to policy development”. The...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Functions (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: My Department’s ETB Financial and Administrative Personnel Unit (ETB Unit) provides a range of operational, resourcing and support functions to Education and Training Boards (ETBs). The main areas of the unit’s work are -The administration and issue of a wide range of grant funding to ETBs in respect of their schools and head offices,The allocation of administrative and...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Functions (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: I refer to the Deputy’s question regarding the expected timeline for the remaining ETBs migration of expense functions to the Education Shared Business Services (ESBS). Thirteen ETBs have now migrated their Travel and Subsistence (Expenses) payments function to ESBS, and ESBS processed 6,698 expenses payments on behalf of ETBs during the course of 2024. A further two ETBs, namely...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Functions (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: The Department of Education has utilised cloud computing, including software as a service (SaaS) for many years. My department’s adoption and utilisation of cloud services has been informed by the DPENDR/OGCIO cloud computing advice notes from 2015 to date. These publications guide and inform my department on the latest industry, policy and legislative developments and enable...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Functions (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: Department of Education officials in the Shared Services Implementation Unit are assisting their colleagues in the Education Shared Business Services to ensure all of their IT contracts are compliant and there is a plan in place to remedy any compliance issues with the IT contracts in place. This work includes;Shared Services Implementation Unit is assisting the ETB Finance team to replace a...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Bodies (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: I can confirm to the Deputy that I have met the Chief Executives of the majority of the bodies under the aegis of my Department since my appointment as Minister, and I intend to complete this meetings in the coming period.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: The Teachers’ Professional Journeys: The First Decade longitudinal research study, was jointly commissioned and is jointly funded by the Teaching Council and Department of Education. The following is a tabular breakdown of the payment made by the Department of Education to date: Year Cost breakdown Dept of Education payment 2023 ...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: I refer to my response to Parliamentary Question No. 304 of 20 March 2025, in which my department confirmed that an application for incremental credit has not been received from the teacher noted. Officials from my department have subsequently established that this matter refers to incremental progression on the salary scale. Please note that Circular 18/2000, provided as part of this...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Parliamentary Questions (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: The Minister will write directly to the Deputy when she is in a position to provide an update on the matter.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: Recruitment and appointment of teachers is a matter for the school, as the employer, in line with the criteria set out in the relevant appointment circulars. Teachers taking up their first contract in a viable teaching post in September 2025, will become eligible for a permanent contract in September 2026. This eligibility is contingent upon successful re-appointment following a...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1048 and 1062 together. My department recognises the vitally important role of Secretaries within the school community. However, entitlement to specific employment terms and conditions is determined by a number of factors, including the nature of the role to be undertaken by the individual, the statutory basis on which various terms and conditions are...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: Teachers taking up their first contract in a viable teaching post in September 2025, will become eligible for a permanent contract in September 2026. This eligibility is contingent upon successful re-appointment following a competitive recruitment process. Existing CID (Contract of indefinite duration) Primary Circular 0023/2015 and Post-Primary Circular 0024/2015 sets out the current...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Curriculum (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: Since its introduction, the popularity and uptake of Transition Year has increased significantly to the point where it is now offered in almost every post-primary school. The number of students participating in Transition Year has also grown in recent years, with the latest figures showing that over 60,000 students are currently in Transition Year, equivalent to just over 80% of the number of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: Teachers taking up their first contract in a viable teaching post in September 2025, will become eligible for a permanent contract in September 2026. This eligibility is contingent upon successful re-appointment following a competitive recruitment process. A post is considered to be viable if it is for a reasonable period, comes from the school allocation, does not relate to temporary...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: The core function of the redeployment arrangements is to facilitate the redeployment of all surplus permanent teachers on the Main Panel to other schools that have vacancies. The 2025/26 staffing arrangements advised schools that Main Panels would issue after Easter. These panels are currently being compiled and will be issued to the panel operators shortly. As Main Panels clear,...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Oideachas trí Ghaeilge (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: Tacaíonn an Roinn Oideachais go hiomlán le bunú Gaelcholáiste i gceantar Chathair Bhaile Átha Cliath Theas agus tá sí tiomanta go hiomlán dó sin. Tá an Roinn ag obair faoi láthair le hIontaobhas Scoileanna Éamainn Rís agus le bainistíocht na scoile chun a chinntiú go mbíonn plé leanúnach agus...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Curriculum (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: TIMSS Advanced is an extension of the main TIMSS study that has been carried out at an international level periodically but less regularly than the main TIMSS study. TIMSS has taken place every four years since 1995 (so the upcoming 2027 cycle will be the 9th iteration), whereas TIMSS Advanced has taken place three times to date (1995, 2008, and 2015). TIMSS assesses the mathematics and...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: The Professional Master of Education (PME) is a two-year, full-time Level 9 postgraduate professional teacher education programme designed to qualify graduates as primary and post-primary teachers. Changes to the duration and content of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes were made in response to recommendations in the National Strategy to Improve Literacy and Numeracy among...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: State Examinations (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: The State Examinations Commission has statutory responsibility for operational matters relating to the state 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: Education and Training Provision (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: Meeting the educational needs of children and young people arriving from Ukraine and other countries is a priority for the Government, and my Department is determined to support the efforts of school communities across the country who have shown huge commitment and generosity. In Ireland, all migrant children, including children of international protection applicants, children of migrant...