Results 261-280 of 6,337 for speaker:James Lawless

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Accommodation (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: Reply not received from Department.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education and Training Boards (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: Key to the development of the Further Education and Training (FET) sector and the realisation of the full potential of the FET College of the Future is reform of the current systems and staffing structures. This is called out as an enabling theme in the FET Strategy 2020-2024. To support the reform agenda, my Department appointed an Independent Expert Panel in March 2024 to evaluate FET...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: The OECD Skills Strategy Review (May 2023) concluded a 15-month project led by my department in partnership with the OECD; to comprehensively review Ireland’s skills strategies, structures, and approaches to ensure they are fit for purpose and future-ready. The review provides a blueprint for Ireland’s skills approach into the future that will enable Irish society and economy to...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Functions (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: It has been a longstanding objective of my Department, based on the findings of the Indecon Review of Career Guidance (2019) (www.gov.ie/en/department-of-education/publications/indecon- review-of-career-guidance/), to strengthen the provision of information and guidance around career decision making. The need to strengthen the provision of information and guidance was re-enforced by the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Strategies (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: Lifelong learning was one of the four priority areas examined by the 2023 OECD Review of Ireland's National Skills Strategy (www.oecd.org/en/publications/oecd-skills-strategy-ireland_d 7b8b40b-en.html). The Review noted that SMEs face particular challenges in providing or supporting lifelong learning, as SMEs often lack the resources (time, money, HR function etc.) to help their staff to...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Strategies (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: Officials in my Department have started the process of developing Technology Skills of the Future – the Successor to Technology 2022. Technology Skills of the Future will be a Roadmap updated regularly to reflect the impact of technological change on skills needs. The first iteration will focus on specialist digital skills. My officials are collaborating with the Expert Group on...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Policies (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: Reply not received from Department.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: Three institutions are currently the subject of Section 64 reviews by the Higher Education Authority under the HEA Act 2022. TU Dublin availed of Section 142 of the HEA Act 2022 whereby the HEA provided assistance to the university following a request in writing from the President. Section 142(2) provides for the appointment of a body to provide advice or assistance to an institution and...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Functions (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: I can confirm the former Higher Education Policy and Reform unit has been split, as planned, into two units. These new business units are Higher Education Policy: Learners and Skills, and Higher Education: Systems Policy and Reform.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: The National Access Plan (NAP) 2022-2028 sets out our ambitions for an inclusive, diverse Higher Education sector. The NAP targets and supports students who are socioeconomically disadvantaged, students with disabilities and students from the Traveller and Roma communities. The Programme for Access to Higher Education (PATH) are the funding streams which have been put in place to support...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: I propose to take Questions Nos. 879 and 880 together. It is my intention to initiate the disability demonstration project this year which will seek to inform the development of a policy framework on the design and implementation of a more flexible, responsive, tailored model of supports for students with disabilities during their educational journey. The project will consider transitions...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Admissions (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: The National Access Plan (NAP) commits to undertaking a mid-term review in 2025 to assess progress to date in the implementation of the NAP and to identify priorities for the second phase of implementation. The Mid-term Progress Review of the NAP recently commenced, following the appointment by the HEA of independent consultants with expertise in the areas of widening participation and...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: Reply not received from Department.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: My Department recognises the need to offer support for more flexible forms of learning and last year, for the first time, a new Part-Time Fee Scheme for Specified Undergraduate Courses was introduced. This Scheme provides fee support to eligible part-time students attending specified publicly funded undergraduate courses leading to a major award. This includes specified in person and...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Technological Universities (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: I propose to take Questions Nos. 885, 887 and 891 together. I propose to take questions, PQs 27318 , 27320, and 27357, together. I wish to begin by stating that my Department continues to support all five Technological Universities, in line with our commitments towards the sector under the Programme for Government. Advancing Technological University Reforms To support the ongoing...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: Reply not received from Department.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education and Training Provision (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: Addressing workforce planning needs for the public sector in a sustainable manner requires a whole of government approach. In recent years over 1,000 places have been added to programmes of acute skills shortage, particularly in the health and social care disciplines. At the request of my Department, the Higher Education Authority (HEA) has run two Expression of Interest (EoI) processes...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Functions (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: Officials within my Department have recently taken on a number of corporate and sectoral governance responsibilities as part of the Transfer of Functions from the Department of Education to DFHERIS. The following transfer of sectoral governance responsibilities began in Q4 2024:The Compliance Assurance Return - Corporate Services assists in providing the Accounting Officer with an...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Functions (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: My department is leading on a number of initiatives to address the skills gap in construction under Housing for All. "" is a social media campaign designed both to change the perception of the construction sector from the narrow lens of 'on-site' to the opportunities that exist through MMC (Modern Methods of Construction) and other advances; and to end the stereotype that the sector is...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Staff (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: The report produced by the Department of Education in 2022 [Review of the awarding of professional added years by the University of Limerick during the period 2011-2017 and of the admission of two senior subsidiary company staff into the University of Limerick Pension Scheme] follows a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) in 2018. The C&AG report had highlighted...