Results 241-260 of 15,047 for speaker:Helen McEntee

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education Welfare Service (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: Tusla Education Support Service (TESS) is under the remit of my Department. TESS operates under the Education (Welfare) Act, 2000, a piece of legislation that emphasises the promotion of school attendance, participation and retention. TESS has three strands namely the statutory Educational Welfare Service (EWS) and the two school support services the Home School Community Liaison (HSCL)...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: The scheme for Leave of Absence following Assault (LOAFA) was agreed for teachers and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) between Management bodies of schools, Unions, the Department of Public Expenditure, National Delivery and Reform and the Department of Education, and came into effect from 1 September 2017, on a pilot basis. The provisions of the scheme are contained in Department Circulars...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: The key factor for determining the level of staffing resources provided at individual school level is the staffing schedule for the relevant school year and pupil enrolments on the previous 30 September. The staffing process contains an appeals mechanism for schools to submit a staffing appeal under certain criteria to an independent Primary Staffing Appeals Board. The school referred to...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: State Examinations (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: The State Examinations Commission (SEC) acknowledges that school authorities are in the best position to put the arrangements in place to cater for the needs of individual candidates for whom the use of a special centre has been approved. The SEC further recognises that in the interests of candidate(s) for whom special centres are approved, the school may wish to nominate a specific SNA or a...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education Policy (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: As Minister, I recognise a need to ensure that all of our students can follow a senior cycle learning pathway most appropriate to their needs, and any new learning pathways need to be valued. Last September, under Senior Cycle Redevelopment, the Senior Cycle Level 1 and Level 2 Learning Programmes Statement, and initial modules in Numeracy, and Communication and Literacy, were published....

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Data (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: I wish to inform the Deputy that the property in question is not in the ownership of my Department. Therefore any matters relating to the use of the building should be addressed with the property owner. In general, my Department supports and encourages the use of school buildings for community and recreational purposes, where feasible, including the provision of early learning and childcare...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: 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 172,500 children, are transported daily in approximately 7,900 vehicles across 10,300 routes to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. These daily trips cover over 100 million kilometres. this figure includes over...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: 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 172,500 children, are transported daily in approximately 7,900 vehicles across 10,300 routes daily to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. These daily trips cover over 100 million kilometres. This figure includes...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Disadvantaged Status (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: Tackling educational disadvantage and supporting students to fulfil their full potential in life is a key priority for me as Minister for Education, and for the Government. The DEIS programme is a key policy of Government to tackle concentrated educational disadvantage at school level. It provides a targeted range of supports and is additional to the universal supports provided to all...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: This government is fully committed to supporting children with special educational needs to fulfil their full potential and the Programme for Government makes a number of commitments to deliver on this objective. The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has responsibility for coordinating and advising on the education provision for children with special educational needs. By the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: The school to which the Deputy refers was approved to enter the department’s pipeline for a project under my Department's Additional School Accommodation (ASA) Scheme. The project will provide four mainstream classrooms, eight SET rooms and a four classroom Special Education Needs (SEN) base. The project was devolved for delivery to the school authority. I can confirm that the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Curriculum (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: Music education in all of its different forms plays is an important part of the curriculum in both primary and post primary education and also in non-mainstream educational settings. There are several references to the Irish harp, traditional Irish instruments and to traditional music-making in the Primary Music curriculum. It emphasises the importance of using the voice, the first and...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: 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 172,500 children, are transported daily in approximately 7,900 vehicles across 10,300 routes daily to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. These daily trips cover over 100 million kilometres. This figure includes...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: 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 172,500 children, are transported daily in approximately 7,900 vehicles across 10,300 routes daily to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. These daily trips cover over 100 million kilometres. This figure includes...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: The Letter of Acceptance (LOA) for the school building project referred to by the Deputy issued to the preferred tenderer on the 1st July 2022, commencing the school building contract. Phase 1 of the building was handed over to the school in August 2024. Works on Phase 2 are progressing on site and expenditure to date is in accordance with the conditions of the contract, which is...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: The number of apprenticeships registered with my Department over the last five years are detailed below. Figures are as of 31st December for each year. All apprenticeships were part of the Civil Service ICT Apprenticeship Program. There were two cohorts within this period, one ran from 2019 – 2021 and the other ran from 2023 – 2025. No program was active in the Department...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Staff (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: On the commencement of every Dáil, the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP, Delivery and Reform issues guidelines setting out the arrangements for the staffing of Ministerial offices. All Ministerial staff staff are paid in accordance with the applicable pay scales put in place by the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform The attached tabular statement contains...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Facilities (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: The recently published Programme for Government, Securing Ireland’s Future, includes the commitment to provide free period products in schools to ensure no student is held back due to period poverty. I intend to make progress in relation to providing free period products and work in this area is being advanced. My department is participating in the work of the inter-departmental...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Equipment (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: To date, €310 million has issued to all recognised primary and post-primary schools in ICT grant funding, under the Digital Strategy for Schools 2015-2020 and the current Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027. This funding has enabled schools to invest in appropriate digital infrastructure to enable the embedding of the use of digital technology in teaching, learning and assessment. ...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Pupil-Teacher Ratio (8 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: I propose to take Questions Nos. 512 and 513 together. Under the Programme for Government there is a commitment to aim to reduce the general pupil teacher ratio at primary level to 19:1 over the term of the government and introduce targeted measures in schools with very large classes. The current teacher allocation ratio stands at an average of 1 classroom teacher for every 23 pupils...