Results 17,381-17,400 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Parent and Student Charter (30 Nov 2016)

Richard Bruton: As the Deputy will be aware the Programme for a Partnership Government provides that the Government will introduce a stronger complaints procedure and charter for parents. My Department has been working on draft legislation to provide for replacing the current Section 28 of the Education Act, 1998. The overall approach is to shift away from concentrating on reacting to problems only after...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (30 Nov 2016)

Richard Bruton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 71 and 73 together. The project to which the Deputy refers has reached an advanced stage of architectural planning, Stage 2b, which involves securing the statutory approvals and the preparation of tender documents. The design team was appointed in March 2011 with a brief to provide the extension and refurbishment work on a phased basis with a...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Funding (30 Nov 2016)

Richard Bruton: The project referred to by the Deputy provides a valuable role in encouraging empathy in young people. Building empathy is considered to be part of the SPHE curriculum. This project is one of a range of external resources and initiatives that are available to assist schools in implementing various aspects of the Social Personal Health Education (SPHE) curriculum. It is a matter for...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Supplementary) (30 Nov 2016)

Richard Bruton: I thank the Chairman and the committee for accommodating us in the taking of the Supplementary Estimate. I am seeking an additional €136 million, of which €100 million is capital expenditure and €36 million is current expenditure. As members can see, some of the subheads show savings, while others show increases. The original allocation for primary and post-primary...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Supplementary) (30 Nov 2016)

Richard Bruton: I thank Deputies for their contributions. The saving on substitution costs is a once-off and not a basis on which we could fund a pay increase in the longer term. There is always an estimating element in deciding different issues and, as we see, superannuation and substitution costs are particularly hard to forecast. Just because there is a saving in one subhead does not mean that we can...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Supplementary) (30 Nov 2016)

Richard Bruton: Yes, if projects are ready to commence, but readiness involves planning, design, sanction-----

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Supplementary) (30 Nov 2016)

Richard Bruton: No.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Supplementary) (30 Nov 2016)

Richard Bruton: A school is included in the programme for a particular year, which means that the Department will engage with the school on delivery in that year. However, the supply chain which involves planning, design, approval, tendering and so on, is of such a length that cannot be fully determined. Therefore, we cannot say it will happen in month X or Y because it depends on the complexity of the...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Supplementary) (30 Nov 2016)

Richard Bruton: The ongoing pension payment is included in that provision. If they leave on 1 January, they have to get a year's pension as well.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Supplementary) (30 Nov 2016)

Richard Bruton: Deputy Nolan raised a question about the caretakers. This is due to the phasing. The pay increase of 2.5% in the hourly rate of grant came in on 1 January 2016. In addition, the introduction of a minimum hourly rate of €10.25 was introduced. The ancillary service grant was increased in 2016, from €147 to €153, to enable primary schools to implement the first phase of...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Supplementary) (30 Nov 2016)

Richard Bruton: It is accurate to say that planning permissions would not be the central feature in the way the Department plans; it would be births within the catchment and the pattern of births leading to preschool, first year, etc. We track the data. The Department breaks the country down into 314 squares within which the population projections, both at primary and at secondary level, are forecast...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Supplementary) (30 Nov 2016)

Richard Bruton: Yes. It would need a substantial decision that this was a policy priority within the education budget. That has been the approach for a considerable number of years. I suppose we are trying to keep pace with curriculum pressures, pressures to provide resource teachers, pressures to look at class size, etc. In any given period, one is looking at how to share out the available funding in...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Supplementary) (30 Nov 2016)

Richard Bruton: In answer to Deputy Byrne's question, the pension payroll is not operated by the payroll shared service. Funding is provided from two subheads covering the pension and gratuity costs of former IOT staff. The number of IOT staff retiring fluctuates from year to year and the scale of these fluctuations is not possible to precisely predict. The fact that these persons are not employees of my...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Supplementary) (30 Nov 2016)

Richard Bruton: I assume it is the ongoing pension costs. If a person retires on 1 January they will get the full pension for that year. The total capital allocation for the education sector in 2017 was to be €599 million, as announced in September 2015, but it is being increased to €690 million, though €51 million of that increase is due to the payment of PPP unitary charges...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Supplementary) (30 Nov 2016)

Richard Bruton: The figure for next year is €690. The outturn for last year-----

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Supplementary) (30 Nov 2016)

Richard Bruton: -----was €595 million. Deputy Nolan asked about secretaries and caretakers. I am not an expert on this but some schools have them and there are various thresholds. There are some historical posts, many of which were suppressed during the FEMPI years because it was a discretionary area. They are funded through capitation. The level of capitation is always under scrutiny and we hope...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Supplementary) (30 Nov 2016)

Richard Bruton: There was €100 million allocated to 36 projects to proceed in 2017. The total cost of those over 2016 and 2017 is €260 million, about €70 million of which comes from the €100 million in 2016. All these projects were on the programme anyway so there is a net gain. We are not adding a number of schools but funding the existing pipeline programmes.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Supplementary) (30 Nov 2016)

Richard Bruton: As schools approach that final stage when they are ready to go to tender, we release them.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Supplementary) (30 Nov 2016)

Richard Bruton: The schools involved have already been announced for 2016, 2017 and 2018. When they are ready to be released to tender we let them out, usually in blocks. They are not always a neat arrangement. There is a three-month design phase, a two-month-----

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Supplementary) (30 Nov 2016)

Richard Bruton: I do not have that information with me. We are continually reviewing the population trends and the actual enrolments at different points. As the Deputy says, there are a number of areas, including some in my constituency, that have been flagged as borderline or which may need additional provision, but I do not believe we publish a list of what is currently being assessed. It is only when...