Results 15,841-15,860 of 15,994 for speaker:Helen McEntee

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education Policy (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: The wellbeing of all learners is, and will continue to be, a key priority of the Department of Education, as well as the empowerment of parents and school communities through education and information. Online safety and the safe and ethical use of digital technologies is a key component of the Department’s Digital Strategy for Schools. The Strategy recognises that the education system...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: My Department recognises the vitally important role of secretaries and caretakers within school communities, as a key link between students, school leaders and other staff, ensuring that both the core needs of the school are met. Without them, our schools would be unsustainable. Where a school employs a staff member to support those functions those staff are not public servants but...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education Policy (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: Thank you for your question regarding the STEM Education Policy Statement 2017–2026. Since the launch of the policy statement, the Department of Education and Youth has made significant progress towards enhancing STEM teaching and learning across all levels of education from early learning and care to post-primary school level. The STEM Education Implementation Plan to 2026...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Funding (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: Under Project Ireland 2040, a commitment was given that the Minor Works Grant would be paid in either December or January of the school year to all primary schools, including special schools. In recent years, my department’s approach has been to pay the Minor Works Grant to schools in advance of the start of the following school year, in order to facilitate a better lead in period for...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: Teaching remains an attractive profession in Ireland and there are now more teachers employed in primary schools across the country than ever before. My Department publishes data on teacher numbers in June of each year and is available for the deputy to view on the Departments’ website: www.gov.ie/en/department-of-education/publications/teacher-s tatistics/ The data show that the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Irish Language (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: The criteria for recognition as a Gaeltacht School were set out in circular 0034/2017 for post-primary schools when schools were invited to join the Gaeltacht School Recognition Scheme in 2017. There are 11 criteria for post-primary schools, including the requirement to “deliver high-quality educational experiences through Irish to all students focusing particular attention on the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: The purpose of the Summer Works Scheme is to devolve funding to individual school authorities to undertake small-scale building works which, ideally, can be carried out during the summer months or at other times that avoid disrupting the operation of the school. The Summer Works Scheme plays an important role in the maintenance and upgrade of the condition of our schools. It provides...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: This government is fully committed to supporting children with special educational needs to fulfil their potential and the Programme for Government makes a number of commitments to deliver on this objective. The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has responsibility for coordinating and advising on the education provision for children with special educational needs. The new...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Funding (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: The Government is committed to increasing funding to support schools. This has included a €30 million permanent increase in capitation funding to assist schools now and longer term with increased day-to-day running costs through Budget 2025. This represents an increase of circa 12% on current standard rates and enhanced rates. This increase is on top of the circa 9.2% increase from...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Funding (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: As the Deputy is aware, I recently announced €65 million in funding to support digital learning in schools and minor building works. €35 million in grant funding for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has now issued to all recognised primary and post-primary schools. This ICT funding is being provided to schools to help them continue to use digital technologies...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: National Educational Psychological Service (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: My Department’s National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) provides educational psychological support to all primary and post-primary schools. This involves direct support in the event of a critical incident, access to national and regional support and development work to build school capacity to support students, access to a NEPS psychologist for responses to queries arising,...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Funding (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: The school to which the Deputy refers submitted an application for funding under the Emergency Works Scheme (EWS) for roof works. My Department has recently received the requested leak detection report which is currently undergoing a technical review, once a technical recommendation has been received the EWS team will will engage further with the school as appropriate. The EWS team is...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Youth Services (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: Supporting youth services is apriority for the Department of Education and Youth, ensuring that young people in Dublin and across the country, have access to valuable resources and opportunities. In 2025, the 31 Youth Services represented by the Independent Youth Projects in Dublin were allocated a total of €13,459,281 in funding from the Department of Education and Youth. To date,...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Funding (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: As the Deputy is aware, I recently announced €65 million in funding to support digital learning in schools and minor building works. €35 million in grant funding for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has issued to all recognised primary and post-primary schools, while a separate €30 million in minor works funding is being provided to primary and special...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Curriculum (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: As the Deputy is aware, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) has published (ncca.ie/en/senior-cycle/senior-cycle-redevelopment/schedule -of-senior-cycle-subjects-for-redevelopment/) the schedule for the revision of all Leaving Certificate Established subjects. This redevelopment will be implemented in five annual tranches from 2025 to 2029, with new and revised...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education Policy (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: I acknowledge that homework can play an important part in helping students to prepare for forthcoming classwork and in reinforcing work already covered during class time. The Primary Curriculum Framework, published in 2023, supports learning at home through meaningful activities, including homework. It highlights the role of parents’ positive attitudes and encourages tasks that are...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Youth Services (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: My Department is committed to supporting the delivery and development of youth work services and opportunities for young people across the 16 education and training boards (ETBs) including Laois Offaly ETB. In 2025, €138,580 was allocated to Laois Offaly ETB under the ETB Youth Service Grant, to support the ETB in carrying out its functions relating to the administration of the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: National Educational Psychological Service (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: My Department is committed to supporting the emotional wellbeing of all children including those who may have experienced trauma. The National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) has engaged in extensive national training of school staff in the area of trauma-informed practice and have developed a eLearning course for school staff - ‘Introducing a Trauma Informed Approach: The...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: My Department recognises the vitally important role of secretaries and caretakers within school communities, as a key link between students, school leaders and other staff, ensuring that both the core needs of the school are met. Without them, our schools would be unsustainable. Since September 2023 my department has been providing a payroll service for former grant funded school...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Educational Disadvantage (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: Tackling educational disadvantage and supporting students to fulfil their full potential in life is a key priority for me as Minister for Education and Youth, and for the Government. The DEIS programme is a key policy of Government to tackle concentrated educational disadvantage at school level. It provides a targeted range of supports and is additional to the universal supports provided to...