Results 2,621-2,640 of 45,291 for speaker:Simon Harris

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Education and Training Provision (27 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: No.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Education and Training Provision (27 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: I genuinely do not think I was there. I am open to correction if I was but I do not have a recollection of it. There are two separate issues here. Like all universities, UCC had to prioritise the projects it wanted to submit under the HESIF. It put forward two: the business school and the Kane Building. It got the allocation for both and those projects moved forward. The broader...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Education and Training Provision (27 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: I thank both Deputies. On the expression of interest process, Deputy Farrell's question was interesting because I asked about graduate entry programmes and was told that none were proposed as part of the expression of interest round. There were three options identified under the Higher Education Authority expression of interest process. One was for a new programme and two were for the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Adult Education Provision (27 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: I also think we need to look at the SUSI Act. To be honest, whoever is the Minister and whoever is in government, it is too prescriptive to have this in primary legislation. If we look at the SUSI Act as compared with some of the social welfare Acts, the Minister for Social Protection, whoever he or she is, has a flexibility through regulation whereas, frankly, the primary legislation is...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Adult Education Provision (27 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: I want to specifically address this issue because I believe that when it comes to personal assistants, we need to have a consistency of approach throughout the country. I also believe we need to have real engagement with the Fórsa trade union, which has lodged a claim, which is the right and proper way to address this. The Deputy and I have talked about the issue of what we can do in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (27 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: This is an excellent question. I am sure it is not because Deputy Bruton does not intend to seek re-election to the Dáil and has announced his retirement that he is looking to know if he can play a role. There would be nobody better to play a role in our education system because we have certainly learned from him here. This question gets to the very heart of the ageism that exists...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Apprenticeship Programmes (27 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Moynihan for the question. He is so right. Some of the biggest challenges we have involve increasing awareness and perhaps bringing about cultural and attitudinal change in regard to what we traditionally might have called the crafts, the trades or vocational education. I am committed to enhancing pathways for people after secondary school to try to move the conversation on,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Apprenticeship Programmes (27 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: That is a good question. While the answer is "Yes", those structures could be better. I recently met with the chairs of all our regional skills forums, almost all of whom are involved in businesses, to ask them to suggest what we can do at a regional level to reach out to businesses and make sure they have information around apprenticeships and the supports put in place by the Government to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Apprenticeship Programmes (27 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: Yes. My Department, and most specifically our National Apprenticeship Office, are working tirelessly to try to grow a coalition of people to support and promote apprenticeships through engaging with parent councils, boards of management, trade unions, teacher union representative bodies and guidance counsellors. There is a legitimate issue here that we need to address. I have tasked the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Adult Education Provision (27 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Ó Murchú for his genuine support for the roll-out of programmes for students with intellectual disabilities, for his work on the Joint Committee on Autism, for attending our launch of the expansion of courses for students with intellectual disability, and for his tireless advocacy for personal assistants, which I also acknowledge. I want to recognise that. As the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Education and Training Provision (27 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: The Deputy has asked an excellent follow-up question. On resources, we are increasing the budget of Skillnet Ireland, which is an incredible agency, massively. The budget of this organisation in 2017 was €18.2 million. In 2024 the budget is core funding of €41.4 million plus a further €10 million. We have gone from €18.2 million to €51.498 million...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Education and Training Provision (27 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: I am very reluctant to give advice to business owners because I know how hard they work at the coalface. They have to make wage bills every week and month but I want businesses across the country to know that there is a suite of supports available and in place for them to help them, their business and their individual employees to upskill and reskill. We now have micro-qualifications...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Education Policy (27 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for his question, which highlights the importance of trying to align graduate output with our future workforce and skills needs. It is important, when we think of previous questions, that we do not just talk about the workforce and skills needs of the private sector, although that is really important, but we also talk about the workforce and skills needs of our public...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Education Policy (27 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: I am not satisfied, and I cannot be, because I have a number of reports that show really acute skills shortages in key areas of the economy. We know that we will need 50,000 more people to work in construction by 2030 and around 17,000 people to work in retrofitting. Both of those numbers are really important for our housing and climate agendas. We also know that those numbers are likely...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Education Policy (27 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Burke for what is a really topical question. We are certainly doing a lot in this space, although whether we can ever do enough is a big question. The Deputy is right that this is certainly an area that we need to prioritise. One of the things we are trying to do is to dispel the myth that education is just something people do in primary and secondary school, with a couple...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Education Policy (27 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: It is for this reason that we have changed our approach to student accommodation. In Deputy Durkan's constituency, for example, the town of Maynooth is one of the first beneficiaries of the new Government approach to student accommodation. We are investing taxpayer's money, along with university funding, to make accommodation projects viable. The student accommodation project in Maynooth...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (27 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: I thank my party colleague, Deputy Burke, not just for raising this matter but also for meeting with me on the issue. We had a really good engagement, which I will return to in a moment. Expanding the number of places available on health and social care profession programmes is a significant priority for my Department. It is so important for the delivery of healthcare services and cancer...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (27 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: The Deputy and I, and I think everyone in this House, will agree everyone wants all scanners in all hospitals to be used to their full capacity. There is not a family in Ireland who have not been touched by cancer. If we can provide the best use of the equipment in which this State has invested and empower the incredible professionals to work with that equipment by providing them with more...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (27 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: The Deputy is entirely correct. There are two parts to this. We have to both train enough people and retain enough people in the health service and, obviously, issues of retention are for my colleague the Minister for Health. Nevertheless, I understand a local arrangement is in place between the HSE South/South West Hospital Group whereby the former provides support to diagnostic...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Education and Training Provision (27 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: As both Deputies Durkan and Bruton will be aware, the digital transition fund, administered by Enterprise Ireland on behalf of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, aims to increase the digitisation of all businesses in respect of products, processes, supply chains and business models. It seeks to help companies at all stages of their digital journey, from simply going online,...