Results 16,581-16,600 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Public Sector Staff (6 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: A final reply has now issued to the person referred to by the Deputy in relation to her service and salary.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Residential Institutions Redress Scheme (6 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: Caranua has responded directly to the needs of survivors by extending its services to include, for example, contribution to funeral costs, household goods, home decoration, reconnecting with family members and home place, etc.  I understand that a maximum personal allocation of €15,000 has been introduced to ensure that the Fund, which is limited, is distributed fairly....

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Placement (6 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: My Department has been in contact with the Patron of the school referred to by the Deputy in relation to its future viability. The Patrons’ office has advised my Department that the school has not enrolled any pupils for the current school year. The Patron's office has also advised that it is considering the future viability of the school and in that regard will liaise with my...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Facilities (6 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: There are many competing demands on the limited capital budget for higher education. The Department of Education and Skills is aware of the proposed new library referred to by the Deputy and it will be considered within the context of competing demands. I am not in a position to commit to a funding allocation at this point.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (6 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: The building project for the school to which the Deputy refers was recently approved to progress to the advanced stage of the architectural planning process, Stage 2(b) - Detailed Design, which includes the applications for planning permission, fire cert and disability access cert and the preparation of tender documents. The design team, in liaison with officials from the relevant local...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (6 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: The building project for the school to which the Deputy refers was recently approved to progress to the advanced stage of the architectural planning process, Stage 2(b) - Detailed Design Stage, which includes the applications for planning permission, fire cert and disability access cert and the preparation of Tender Documents. Once all statutory approvals have been secured, and subject to...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Funding (6 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: The principles underpinning the funding of agencies are set out in the Public Financial Procedures and circulars issued by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, including Circular 13/2014 concerning management and accountability of grants from Exchequer funds. Funds for the different bodies in the education sector are provided for in Vote 26: Education and Skills and are voted upon...

Seanad: Action Plan for Education: Statements (6 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: I thank the Senators for having scheduled this debate. As they can imagine, I am very keen to put forward the case that education is absolutely pivotal to our future challenges. This Government has set two main challenges. I think we all see two main challenges. One is how to sustain the progress to reach full employment, which is very important if we are to be able to say that every...

Seanad: Action Plan for Education: Statements (6 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: On a point of order. That discourse should start with some honest appraisal with what is happening. To say we have had a 15% cut in resource teaching-----

Seanad: Action Plan for Education: Statements (6 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: I thought this was to be an engagement.

Seanad: Action Plan for Education: Statements (6 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: Okay, but the Senator is using a prepared script.

Seanad: Action Plan for Education: Statements (6 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: I thank the 12 Senators who took part in the debate. They made some very interesting contributions. I was somewhat puzzled by Senator Gallagher saying he saw some regressive effect on disadvantaged learners. One of our objectives in the plan was to increase the performance and the focus on disadvantaged learners. One of the features of the resource model, with which he seems to be uneasy,...

Seanad: Action Plan for Education: Statements (6 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: The baptism barrier is being addressed in the other House. The Labour Party has introduced a Bill that would look at the possibility of confining a denomination's right to its own catchment area, which would mean that while a denominational school could favour children within a parish - one would have to define what that is - it could not go outside the parish. That Bill has passed Second...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (11 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: The National Council for Special Education (NCSE), which is an independent statutory agency, is responsible, through its network of Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), for processing applications from schools for special educational needs supports, including SNA support. The NCSE allocates SNA support to schools in accordance with the criteria set out in my Department's Circular...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (11 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: The Deputy will be aware that this Government is committed to ensuring that all children with Special Educational Needs, including those with autism, can have access to an education appropriate to their needs, preferably in school settings through the primary and post primary school network. Such placements facilitate access to individualised education programmes which may draw from a range...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (11 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: Budget 2016 provided an improved staffing allocation to second level schools for the purpose of enhancing guidance provision. This improvement took effect last month. It brought the basis of allocation from 19:1 to 18.7:1 for the 2016/17 school year. The improvement of 0.3 in PTR allocation was a restoration of 50% of the teaching resources that were removed when the allocation of guidance...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Youth Guarantee (11 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: The Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) is a European Union financial package to co-finance measures implemented by Member States to tackle youth unemployment and to assist the implementation of the Youth Guarantee. The YEI is integrated into European Social Fund programming and is being delivered in Ireland as a dedicated priority axis within the ESF Programme for Employability,...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further Education and Training Programmes (11 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: Female participation in further education and training is generally strong with more women than men enrolling on many of the full time programmes, including traineeships and Post Leaving Certificate programmes. The situation on apprenticeship, as set out below, is different.  Female participation is also strong in higher education, although there are specific issues in the STEM area,...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: National Educational Psychological Service (11 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: My Department’s National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) provides an educational psychological 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), full details of which are in the NEPS section of my Department's website. Under this scheme schools can...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Services Staff (11 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: The majority of primary and voluntary secondary schools in the Free Education Scheme receive capitation grant assistance to provide for caretaking, cleaning and/or secretarial services. Within the capitation grant schemes, it is a matter for each individual school to decide how best to apply the grant funding to suit its particular needs and the Department does not stipulate how such...