Results 2,461-2,480 of 13,291 for speaker:Joe McHugh

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Staff Data (10 Dec 2019)

Joe McHugh: I wish to advise the Deputy that a new model for allocating special education teachers was introduced for mainstream schools from September 2017. The new Special Education Teaching allocation provides a single unified allocation for special educational support teaching needs to each school, based on that school’s educational profile. What were previously referred to as Resource...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Staff Data (10 Dec 2019)

Joe McHugh: My Department's policy is to ensure that every child who is assessed as needing Special Needs Assistant (SNA) support will receive access to such support. In 2019, in the region of €1.9 billion is being invested in Special Education, nearly one fifth of the overall Education budget. Budget 2020 has provided for 1,064 additional SNAs posts, for allocation in 2020, which will bring...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: National Educational Psychological Service Data (10 Dec 2019)

Joe McHugh: I can inform the Deputy that the average direct pay and non-pay cost per annum of employing an Educational Psychologist in my Departments NEPS service is €75,000 per annum. The estimated annual additional cost, therefore, of employing ten psychologists would be €0.75m.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Speech and Language Therapy Data (10 Dec 2019)

Joe McHugh: I wish to advise the Deputy that the estimated salary cost for the employment of a speech and language therapist, on a full-time basis, would be an average salary cost of €55,000 per annum for a Speech and Language Therapist grade, or €70,000 per annum for a Senior Speech and Language Therapist grade. The estimated cost of employing ten new speech and language therapists...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Pupil-Teacher Ratio (10 Dec 2019)

Joe McHugh: In the current school year, the numbers employed in our schools have reached the highest ever level. Over 1,300 additional posts in schools have been funded, including more than 370 teaching posts to cater for growth in student population and additional special classes. This builds on the Budget 2018 measure which provided a one point improvement in the staffing schedule in primary schools...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Services Staff (10 Dec 2019)

Joe McHugh: I recognise the very important work done by these staff, and the other support staff in the running of our schools. I have spoken to a number of staff about their employment conditions and understand the issues they have raised. In Budget 2020 I increased the number of secretaries and caretakers in certain schools, allowing schools with enrolments of 500-625 to fill secretary vacancies...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (10 Dec 2019)

Joe McHugh: The building project for Malahide Portmarnock Educate Together Secondary School is being delivered under my Department's Design & Build programme. This delivery programme uses a professional external Project Management team to progress the project through the stages of architectural planning, tendering and construction. The procurement process for a bundle of projects has...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (10 Dec 2019)

Joe McHugh: The provision of education for children with special needs, including those with Autism, is an ongoing priority for Government. Currently, almost 20% of the total Education Vote or €1.9bn is invested in supporting children with special needs. Since 2011 investment in Special Education supports has increased by 50%, which is significantly above the 7% increase in total student...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (10 Dec 2019)

Joe McHugh: The provision of education for children with special needs, including those with Autism, is an ongoing priority for Government. Currently, almost 20% of the total Education Vote or €1.9bn is invested in supporting children with special needs. Since 2011 investment in Special Education supports has increased by 50%, which is significantly above the 7% increase in total student...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Pupil-Teacher Ratio (10 Dec 2019)

Joe McHugh: The DEIS programme allows for a reduced class size in Urban Band 1 primary schools with the application of a preferential staffing schedule to these schools of 20:1 at junior classes and 24:1 at senior classes to support those students at the highest risk of educational disadvantage. As the Deputy may be aware, DEIS Plan acknowledges the allocation of teaching resources to DEIS primary...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (10 Dec 2019)

Joe McHugh: The provision of education for children with special needs, including those with Autism, is an ongoing priority for Government. Currently, almost 20% of the total Education Vote or €1.9bn is invested in supporting children with special needs. Since 2011 investment in Special Education supports has increased by 50%, which is significantly above the 7% increase in total student...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Management (10 Dec 2019)

Joe McHugh: Since my appointment as Minister for Education and Skills I have met with a number of Teaching Principals and I appreciate the pressures they face. Earlier in the year, I hosted a symposium on Small Schools which gave me an opportunity to restate the Government’s commitment to small schools and to open a dialogue with all the key stakeholders. The purpose of this work by the Department...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Advertising Campaigns (10 Dec 2019)

Joe McHugh: The Department is currently in the process of planning its advertising campaigns and event launches for the first six months of 2020. As these are not yet fully planned a breakdown with budgeted costs is not available at the moment. A response will issue directly to the Deputy once all the information is collated.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Data Sharing Arrangements (10 Dec 2019)

Joe McHugh: As a controller of personal data, my Department maintains a number of data sharing agreements with other Government Departments and other public bodies but has no data sharing agreements with non-public bodies. As required by article 28 of the General Data Protection Regulation, my Department does include certain data processing requirements in contracts where its service providers are...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Freedom of Information Data (10 Dec 2019)

Joe McHugh: My Department reports annually to both the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of the Information Commissioner on Freedom of Information activity. The Office of the Information Commissioner publish this data in its annual report and the annual reports are available on the OIC’s website - / The following table outlines the information requested. FOIRequests -...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Physical Education Facilities (10 Dec 2019)

Joe McHugh: I can confirm to the Deputy that my Department has recently received an application, from the school in question, for capital funding for the provision of a PE Hall. Under the National Development Plan (NDP), increased funding has been provided for the school sector capital investment programme. This funding allows for a continued focus on the provision of new permanent school places to...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: DEIS Review (10 Dec 2019)

Joe McHugh: As the Deputy is aware, following the review of DEIS, my Department introduced an objective, statistics based model for assessing which schools merited inclusion in the DEIS Programme. All schools at both Primary and Post Primary level are being assessed using this new methodology based on their enrolments from 2018/19 and the latest data available from Census 2016 under the HP...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: DEIS Review (10 Dec 2019)

Joe McHugh: The Educational Research Centre (ERC) administers the OECD’s Programme for International Assessment (PISA) in nationally representative samples of students aged 15. The study is conducted every three years since 2000, and assesses reading literacy, mathematics and science. The ERC identified an error in the course of a review of PISA 2015 data. The error referred to by the Deputy...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Data (10 Dec 2019)

Joe McHugh: My Department does not hold records regarding payments collected from or made to parents, as the case may be. Section 64 of the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018, which is operational since October 2018, explicitly prohibits the charging of fees or seeking payment or contributions for admission to or for continued enrolment in a school. Under the provisions of the Education Act, 1998...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Homelessness Strategy (10 Dec 2019)

Joe McHugh: My Department is represented on the Homelessness Inter-Agency Group (HIAG) which was established by the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government to bring about greater coherence and coordination in the provision of homelessness related services across the relevant Government organisations. Actions to support children who are experiencing homelessness are being advanced through this...