Results 201-220 of 5,893 for speaker:James Lawless

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Qualifications Recognition (27 Mar 2025)

James Lawless: On the Deputy's Teaching Council case, I will take the details away but it is not uncommon, unfortunately, that people have different levels of accreditation or recognition within the system, notwithstanding the Teaching Council registration. I am not going to make any comment on the individual's situation. I do not know but if it is of any assistance, I have come across a case in my own...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Qualifications Recognition (27 Mar 2025)

James Lawless: For which professions?

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Qualifications Recognition (27 Mar 2025)

James Lawless: I think we can because my own sister is a doctor who qualified in Australia and returned to Ireland and is now practising. It is evidently happening, from personal experience. On the wider arrangement, I recently spent time in India on a St. Patrick's Day trade mission. I was engaged on the reciprocal arrangements there, of which there are many. We have a reciprocal arrangement with...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Fees (27 Mar 2025)

James Lawless: I thank Deputy Kenny, and I will treat with the programme for Government commitments and the rest later. I would be interested to know whether the Deputy agreed with the rest of my comments in that article because I did talk about targeted supports. I talked about addressing the cost of education and improving access to education. I talked about the existing support schemes and whether...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Fees (27 Mar 2025)

James Lawless: I thank the Deputy. We are in a new Government; I am a new Minister. We have had an election. The outworking of that election is a coalition Government. Not every policy of every party is going to be fulfilled. No party won a majority.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Fees (27 Mar 2025)

James Lawless: Yes, the programme for Government will be honoured. The programme for Government commits to a reduction in the student contribution fee in a financially sustainable way, which I will do, of course. I am not going to renege on a programme for Government commitment. I am going to follow it fully but how do we do that? Is it abolition, as Deputy Boyd Barrett argues for? That is €1.5...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Student Accommodation (27 Mar 2025)

James Lawless: Indeed. I am actively engaged with the university and will be there again as soon as tomorrow. I hope there will be ongoing engagement into the future.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Institutes of Technology (27 Mar 2025)

James Lawless: I am aware of the Deputy's ongoing advocacy for all things Dundalk, and, indeed, for Louth. We have discussed her interest in this matter previously, most recently when I attended the opening of the new FET centre in Dundalk, which involved a very significant Government commitment of almost €30 million in the education space for the region. I was delighted to open the centre, along...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Institutes of Technology (27 Mar 2025)

James Lawless: Regarding the policy framework, I do not foresee any blockage. However, there is a technical difficulty, which is why DkIT has not already been subsumed. The Technological Universities Act 2018 provided that two or more institutes of technology could jointly seek technological university designation through a process. At that time, a number of applications were invited. DkIT's governing...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Institutes of Technology (27 Mar 2025)

James Lawless: As I said, I have had an informal meeting with the president of DkIT. I have studied the situation and am very familiar with it. DkIT is something of an outlier in that most of the ITs have been assimilated at this stage. The direction of travel is to have stronger collaborations in order to achieve a sum that is greater than the parts. That is already being done very successfully in many...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Qualifications Recognition (27 Mar 2025)

James Lawless: As the Deputy correctly noted, the European directive on the mutual recognition of professional qualifications ceased to have general applicability to UK award holders post Brexit, that is, after December 2020. Qualifications from the UK were automatically recognised during the transitional period, which ran from 1 February to 31 December 2020. If a qualification was recognised during that...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Oideachas Gaeltachta (27 Mar 2025)

James Lawless: Gabh mo leithscéal as Béarla a labhairt sa supplementary but I must do so for the sake of the accuracy of the reply. My Gaeilge is not quite as líofa as an Teachta Ó Snodaigh's, although I am ag foghlaim mo Ghaeilge arís gach lá. I completely agree with the Deputy about the 5,000 students coming through and the need for provision to match that at every level...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Oideachas Gaeltachta (27 Mar 2025)

James Lawless: Cinnte. Cloisim everything the Deputy says. Táim very much aware of the issues that he raises. There is a lot of sense there and I will take that on board.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Student Accommodation (27 Mar 2025)

James Lawless: Go raibh maith agat. I thank the Deputy for his kind words and equally offer him comhghairdeas on his election. It is good to see him here representing Kildare North. In terms of the student accommodation in Maynooth University, at the outset I should say again that I fully appreciate the importance, and am committed to the provision, of high-quality, affordable, multi-option student...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Student Accommodation (27 Mar 2025)

James Lawless: I fully agree and share the Deputy's ambition for Maynooth. For that reason, I immediately made inquiries about progressing that project when I took office. A total of 116 student beds will come on stream this year in Maynooth. The university will be first to come out of that programme. I am also meeting the university president, Ms Eeva Leinonen, tomorrow. I will be visiting Maynooth...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Student Accommodation (27 Mar 2025)

James Lawless: I will respond in reverse order, taking Deputy Conway-Walsh's points first. I am not sure I accept that there is a line of student accommodation strategies from here to Mayo. Student accommodation was not a government function until very recently, when it came into my Department. It is an easy thing to throw out in a debate but I do not know how accurate it is. I presume the Deputy...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (27 Mar 2025)

James Lawless: This is a very serious issue which I take on board. It is one I am keen to progress. It is governed by the national access plan for higher education 2022-28 which sets out the ambition for an inclusive and diverse higher education sector. An important component of that plan is its recognition and naming of additional priority groups which are considered marginalised or disadvantaged....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (27 Mar 2025)

James Lawless: I do not disagree with any of that. That is why my Department is rolling out multiple diverse and more flexible pathways and financial supports and also non-financial supports. I spoke about the variety of other grant aids and the maintenance grant and how various social protection payments are disregarded from those grants to ensure there is no loss of income for people who take up a...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (27 Mar 2025)

James Lawless: I will not repeat myself but all the measures I introduced in terms of flexibility, financial supports, non-traditional routes to education and geographically distributed access points, including those close to the learner's home, will contribute to and support that endeavour. I hope they are already assisting learners.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Oideachas Gaeltachta (27 Mar 2025)

James Lawless: Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta Ó Snodaigh agus leis an gCathaoirleach Gníomhach as ucht na ceiste seo. Freagróidh mé i nGaeilge í, ach ós rud é nach bhfuil mo chuid Gaeilge chomh láidir le Gaeilge an Teachta Ó Snodaigh, rud a bhfuilim ag obair go dian air chun feabhas a chur air, freagróidh mé na ceisteanna forlíontacha i...