Results 15,941-15,960 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: National Educational Psychological Service (12 Jul 2016)

Richard Bruton: The Deputy will be aware that my Department's National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) provides educational psychology service to all primary and post primary schools through an assigned NEPS psychologist and in some cases through the Scheme for Commissioning Psychological Assessments (SCPA). Under this scheme schools can have an assessment carried out by a member of the panel of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Maternity Protection Entitlements (12 Jul 2016)

Richard Bruton: Special Needs Assistants are employed by the management authority of each individual school. It is a matter for the employer to comply with relevant legislation including the Maternity Protection, Protection of Mothers Who Are Breastfeeding Regulations 2004. Complaints in relation to contraventions of the above legislation by the employer may be presented/referred to the Director General of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Expenditure (12 Jul 2016)

Richard Bruton: As the Deputy is aware the management of complex capital programmes means ensuring that available funding is allocated in particular towards the delivery of large scale projects and the provision of additional accommodation. The 2016 capital provision for the school sector amounts to €527m of which €450m is assigned to the construction of large scale projects and the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (12 Jul 2016)

Richard Bruton: The school in question was allocated funding to build a standalone extension to include a mainstream classroom, resource room and WC for assisted users. The school authority has submitted an application for additional funding and the Building Unit of my Department has sought further information from the school in respect of this application. As soon as this information has been received...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (12 Jul 2016)

Richard Bruton: The major building project for the school referred to by the Deputy is at an advanced stage of architectural planning - Stage 2b - Detailed Design, which includes the applications for Planning Permission, Fire Cert and Disability Access Cert and the preparation of Tender Documents. A decision to grant planning permission for the project was issued by the Local Authority on 4th July 2016. As...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Expenditure (12 Jul 2016)

Richard Bruton: My Department has a contract with the National Council for the Blind of Ireland for the provision of telephonist personnel to operate switchboard services. The tabular statement gives details of the costs in the years requested by the Deputy. The following tabular statement gives details of the cost of the Department engaging the services of telephonists from the National Council for the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Services for People with Disabilities (12 Jul 2016)

Richard Bruton: The Department's website, www.education.ie, was designed to ensure a high level of accessibility to all visitors. The website's design follows international guidelines set out by the W3C (the World Wide Web Consortium). The site aims to comply with Level Double-A standard of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. In addition, a number of Triple-A checkpoints are incorporated to...

Topical Issue Debate: School Funding (13 Jul 2016)

Richard Bruton: I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. I know that he raised it earlier on the Order of Business and I can only imagine what a devastating blow it is to the community in Mallow. As he said, it concerns a school with a great and outstanding record and it comes as a great blow to it that it suffered such damage in the fire. I thank him for contacting the Department and assure him that...

Topical Issue Debate: School Funding (13 Jul 2016)

Richard Bruton: I cannot really add to what has been said, but I will tick-tack with the Deputy and others, including other Deputies in the area, who are concerned to make sure there will be no breakdown in communication and that the various technical assessments will be acted on hastily.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Early Start Programme (13 Jul 2016)

Richard Bruton: The Access and Inclusion Model funded by my colleague, the Minister of Children and Youth Affairs, was developed specifically for the ECCE scheme. Early Start is funded by my Department. Early Start centres are based in 40 primary schools in areas of social disadvantage (DEIS band 1). In comparison to ECCE centres, Early Start centres are staffed by primary school teachers and a childcare...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Reports (13 Jul 2016)

Richard Bruton: A Transitions Reform Steering Group is chaired by the Secretary General of the Department of Education and Skills and has membership from Department of Education and Skills, the National Centre for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), the Higher Education Authority (HEA), the State Examinations Commission (SEC), the Irish Universities Association (IUA) and Institute of Technology Ireland (IOTI)...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Eligibility (13 Jul 2016)

Richard Bruton: To satisfy the terms and conditions of the student grant scheme in relation to progression, a student must be moving from year to year within a course, having successfully completed the previous year or be transferring from one course to another, where the award for the subsequent course is of a higher level than the previous course. The objective of this policy is to help as many...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Access to Higher Education (13 Jul 2016)

Richard Bruton: The Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) Access Service actively engages directly with primary and post primary schools in the inner city of Dublin. The DIT 'Inner City' school programme focuses on working with 1st to 6th year students in 13 schools in the inner city area. The overall aim of this programme is to increase the number of students from schools in inner city Dublin entering...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Eligibility (13 Jul 2016)

Richard Bruton: Under my Department's student grant scheme, eligible candidates may receive funding provided they are attending an approved course at an approved institution as defined in the scheme. The definition of an approved institution is set out in Section 7 of the Student Support Act 2011 and Regulation 3 of the Student Support Regulations 2016. However, tax relief on tuition fees may be available...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (13 Jul 2016)

Richard Bruton: The School referred to by the Deputy is currently in temporary accommodation on the All Hallows Site consisting of 21 Prefabricated Classrooms covering 1,072m2. It was necessary for the school to vacate its permanent school building following weather related damage. The school will continue to operate in Temporary Accommodation pending the delivery of a new school building. A major...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (13 Jul 2016)

Richard Bruton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 116 to 118, inclusive, together. Following the outcome of the recent patronage process I announced that a new primary school under the patronage of Educate Together will open in September 2016 to serve the Drumcondra/Marino/Dublin 1 school planning area. The Deputy will be aware that a project for the provision of a building for this new school is...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teacher Recruitment (13 Jul 2016)

Richard Bruton: I will arrange for the information that is available in relation to teachers paid on payrolls operated by my Department to be forwarded directly to the Deputy.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme (14 Jul 2016)

Richard Bruton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 70 and 72 together. All applications for a maintenance grant are means tested based on the reckonable income for the previous tax year. This is to ensure that the awarding authority can make informed decisions based on the most recent available financial information. It also ensures consistency of decision making as each applicant is required to submit...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Charges (14 Jul 2016)

Richard Bruton: The position is that higher education universities are autonomous institutions as provided for in the Universities Act 1997 and therefore the criteria governing the level of tuition fees to be charged in the case of postgraduate study is solely a matter for the relevant institution to determine in line with its own criteria. Accordingly, my Department has no function in relation to such...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teaching Council of Ireland (14 Jul 2016)

Richard Bruton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 73 and 74 together. As the Deputy may be aware, the Teaching Council is the body with statutory authority under the Teaching Council Acts 2001-2015 for the professional regulation, including registration, of teachers in the State. The work of the Teaching Council is grounded in the values of professionally led regulation, shared professional...