Results 2,221-2,240 of 19,414 for speaker:Norma Foley

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (11 Jul 2024)

Norma Foley: I can assure the Deputy that the provision of school places to meet the needs of children and young people at primary and post primary level, including those with special educational needs, is an absolute priority for my Department. Since 2020, my department has invested in the region of €4.9 billion in our schools, involving the completion of over 900 school building projects....

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (11 Jul 2024)

Norma Foley: I wish to advise the deputy that my department does not provide funding for the upgrade of traffic management or access to school sites outside of any works required as part of a wider school building project. Individual school authorities are responsible, in the first instance, for ensuring the safety and welfare of children and others in their care, including traffic management...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (11 Jul 2024)

Norma Foley: The provision of school places to meet the needs of children and young people at primary and post primary level, including children and young people with special educational needs is an absolute priority for the Department. As the Deputy may be aware, in order to plan for school place needs, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas and utilises a Geographical...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (11 Jul 2024)

Norma Foley: The provision of school places to meet the needs of children and young people at primary and post primary level, including children and young people with special educational needs is an absolute priority for the Department. My Department is aware of enrolment pressures in some areas across Co Kildare including Naas. My Department has been working very closely with patrons, management...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (11 Jul 2024)

Norma Foley: I wish to advise the Deputy that requirements for school places is kept under on-going review in the context of available information on population, enrolments and residential development activity. More than €280 million has been invested in school infrastructure in County Kildare since 2020 alone, reflecting a strong focus on alignment of school place availability with the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (11 Jul 2024)

Norma Foley: The provision of school places to meet the needs of children and young people at primary and post primary level, including children and young people with special educational needs is an absolute priority for the Department. As the Deputy may be aware, in order to plan for school place needs, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas and utilises a Geographical...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Facilities (11 Jul 2024)

Norma Foley: The project to which the Deputy refers has been devolved for delivery to the Board of Management of the school. I am pleased to inform the Deputy that this project was approved by the Department to proceed to Stage 2a of the architectural planning process at the end of Q4 2023. Once the Stage 2a submission is received, reviewed and approved by my Department, the next step for the Design...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Enrolments (11 Jul 2024)

Norma Foley: As the Deputy may be aware, in order to plan for school place needs my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas and utilises a Geographical Information System to anticipate school place demand. Information from a range of sources, including Child Benefit data, school enrolment data and information on residential development activity is used for this purpose. Additionally,...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (11 Jul 2024)

Norma Foley: The project to which the Deputy refers has been devolved for delivery to Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board (KWETB). I am pleased to confirm that a design team to deliver this project has been appointed by the ETB. The Design Team will now begin preparing the Stage 1 report (preliminary design). While at this early stage it is not possible to provide a timeline for...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Enrolments (11 Jul 2024)

Norma Foley: As the Deputy may be aware, in order to plan for school place needs, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas and utilises a Geographical Information System to anticipate school place demand. Information from a range of sources, including Child Benefit data, school enrolment data and information on residential development activity is used for this purpose....

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: After-School Support Services (11 Jul 2024)

Norma Foley: Funding for pre-school services is a matter for the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. My colleague, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has policy responsibility for school-age childcare. By way of information, generally capital funding by the Department of Education is reserved for the provision of mainstream school...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (11 Jul 2024)

Norma Foley: I can assure the Deputy that the provision of school places to meet the needs of children and young people at primary and post primary level, including those with special educational needs, is an absolute priority for my Department. Since 2020, my department has invested in the region of €4.9 billion in our schools, involving the completion of over 900 school building projects....

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Bullying in Educational Institutions (11 Jul 2024)

Norma Foley: I launched Cineáltas: Action Plan on Bullying on 1st December 2022. Cineáltas is my Department’s whole-education approach to preventing and addressing bullying in schools. Cineáltas is dedicated to the prevention and addressing of bullying, cyber bullying, racist bullying, gender identity bullying and sexual harassment, among other areas, in schools. It is centred on...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (10 Jul 2024)

Norma Foley: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year over 161,600 children, including over 135,000 pupils travelling on primary and post primary services, 19,800 pupils with special educational needs, and 6,800 pupils who have arrived to Ireland from Ukraine are transported on a daily basis to...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: International Protection (10 Jul 2024)

Norma Foley: I am keenly aware of the challenges faced by educators and parents in relation to costs of digital technology, including tablets, and my Department continues to work to help support schools and families meet these costs. In 2017 a circular letter issued to schools with measures to be adopted to reduce the cost of school uniforms and other costs including such ICT devices....

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Funding (10 Jul 2024)

Norma Foley: The school to which the deputy refers has submitted an application for funding for external environment works under the Emergency Works Scheme (EWS). I should explain firstly that the purpose of the Emergency Works Scheme (EWS) within my Department is to provide funding specifically for unforeseen emergencies. It does so by ensuring the availability of funding for urgent works to those...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (10 Jul 2024)

Norma Foley: Special education is a key priority for Government, underpinned by over a quarter of the entire education budget. The vast majority of children with special educational needs are supported to attend mainstream classes with their peers. Where children with more complex needs require additional supports, special classes and special school places are provided. The new special school...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: National Educational Psychological Service (10 Jul 2024)

Norma Foley: 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 (10 Jul 2024)

Norma Foley: Since 2020, my department has invested in the region of €4.9 billion in our schools throughout the country, involving the completion of over 900 school building projects and with construction currently underway at approximately 300 other projects, which includes 30 new school buildings. These 300 projects currently at construction involve a total State investment of over €1.2bn....

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (10 Jul 2024)

Norma Foley: I can confirm to the Deputy that my department received an application under the Additional Schools' Accommodation (ASA) Scheme in 2021 from the school in question. The application was for funding for the provision of three Special Education classrooms on foot of the sanction of three special classes by the NCSE in February 2021. Funding was approved for prefab replacement in 2022 for an...