Results 2,981-3,000 of 45,495 for speaker:Simon Harris

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: I am very clear that we are not planning any Eurostat review on this issue.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: There is no proposal for a review by Eurostat or the CSO. The issue now is a policy matter for the Government as to how it wishes our technological universities to access resources to build student accommodation. One way could be to allow them access to the borrowing framework. That had been the traditional way the technological universities were expecting to go. At a very useful meeting...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: It is a fair question but what we are trying to get them to do by the end of March is to flesh out the projects that are there and to let us know what they believe they can do. Many of them have quite detailed plans.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: If they do not, we will certainly work with them, but my sense is that we will be getting a flurry of applications and interest, rather than a dearth.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: If some cannot make it for March and want to come back to us later, that is okay.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: I do indeed. I am delighted to praise the University of Galway, which the Senator mentioned a number of times. When others felt the need to mothball student accommodation projects, Galway ploughed on. Fair enough, the students union has views on how it could be done better, but great credit is due to the management team and governing authority for ploughing on and delivering 674 more beds...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: It is also working for many families and people living on their own. This week, the Government removed another potential barrier around medical card eligibility. That was important, as people should not fear losing their medical cards if they are renting out a room in their house to help us with housing supply and to provide shelter to people. I welcome that. The Senator mentioned two...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Fees (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: The Deputy will be aware that Budget 2024 contains a package of measures to support households with the cost of living. These cost of living measures include the provision of one off funding to reduce the student contribution fee payable by higher education students that are eligible for the free fees initiative (FFI), in academic year 2023/24, by €1,000. In relation to the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Staff (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: The information in respect of state bodies, within the scope of the Deputy’s question, is not held by my Department. Contact details for these bodies are set out in the attached document, should the Deputy wish to contact the aegis bodies directly with their query. Contact E-Mail Addresses for State Bodies under the Remit of the Department of Further and Higher Education,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: The universities, particularly the former institutes of technology that are now technological universities, see a real benefit to this. If I was not clear on this before, let me be clear now; it is not just about on-campus vacant accommodation. Sinn Féin's own housing policies talk about the fact that there is a lot of vacancy, particularly in rural and regional Ireland. In its...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: I was in Letterkenny this week. It also took the opportunity-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: -----to remind me of the importance of Letterkenny and Mountbellew’s bid. We have one veterinary school in Ireland. It is a good one, but we need more than one. We see far too many students having to go abroad to eastern Europe to get their education. Nearly all of them return and join the register here. The majority of people joining the veterinary register now are being educated...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: I thank Senator Dolan for keeping in close contact with me on this matter. I know how eager she and her constituency community are to get this over the line. The approach I take is similar to hers. While we rightly have pride in the fact that we now have record numbers of people registering to be apprentices, which is something we should continue to push, we need to look at the other...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: I will do my best.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: I thank the Senator not just for her contribution today, but for her engagement with me over the lifetime of this Department so far. I very much appreciate it. Before she ever told me, I knew she went to Ballyfermot College because when I go to the college they tell me very regularly that she went there because they are very proud of their link with her. We both attended a graduation...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: When I met the TU presidents and chairs with the Taoiseach recently, it is fair to say that it was one of the top three issues they raised, and which they raise consistently. My colleagues and I in the Department are doing a piece of work in relation to this and we intend to get a paper to the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform this month to try...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: On the research question, we will have TU Research and Innovation Supporting Enterprise, RISE, funding next month as well. That is specifically investment in research, and the technological universities in the south east will benefit from it. Teacher training centres and initial teacher education is a policy matter for the Department of Education, but I will seek the views of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: It is. I thank the Deputy. He has raised this issue with me a couple of times. He raised it when we discussed the HEA Bill, as it was then, through this committee. On the Deputy's recommendation, we strengthened the law around the role for the HEA in the promotion of the Irish language. There is a very strong provision in the legislation on the specific responsibility of the HEA to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: They are all very fair questions. First, I acknowledge, as it is a statement of fact, that of all the technological universities, the only one that has ever built student accommodation, albeit in its former institute of technology construct, is what was WIT. I say that regularly as I go around the country because it is a proof of concept. The process is now as I have set out. I now have a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Update on Key Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (24 Jan 2024)

Simon Harris: The Deputy should let me come back to him with a little bit more specificity but this is very active at the moment. I know the time sensitivity of it. I also want to acknowledge the Waterford Crystal site. It is another thing which some people in Waterford at a political level said we would never purchase. We did and I thank the Deputy for his work with us on that. My understanding is...