Results 3,001-3,020 of 17,012 for speaker:Paul Kehoe

Written Answers — Department of Health: Electric Vehicles (10 Feb 2022)

Paul Kehoe: 436. To ask the Minister for Health the number of electric vehicle charging points that are available for use by staff across all carparks provided for use by his Department throughout the country; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7384/22]

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Sector (10 Feb 2022)

Paul Kehoe: 452. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if there can be an exemption given for the requirement of a felling licence for trees that are under a specific height or a short length from year planted; if not, the reason; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7147/22]

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Electric Vehicles (10 Feb 2022)

Paul Kehoe: 468. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of electric vehicle charging points that are available for use by staff across all carparks provided for use by his Department throughout the country; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7375/22]

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Electric Vehicles (10 Feb 2022)

Paul Kehoe: 474. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the number of electric vehicle charging points that are available for use by staff across all carparks provided for use by her Department throughout the country; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7388/22]

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Paul Kehoe: I welcome the Minister and Ministers of State. We will begin with the 2022 Revised Estimates for Education - Vote 26. Later, we will have the Revised Estimates for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science - Vote 45. I have no apologies received. I remind members and officials to ensure their mobile phones are switched off for the duration of the meeting as they...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Paul Kehoe: I thank the Minister. The first questioner is Deputy Ó Laoghaire.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Paul Kehoe: I have some questions. Following on from Deputy Ó Ríordáin's question about masks, did mask-wearing have the result the Department of Education had hoped for? How many teachers are out with Covid each day? Is it as big an issue as it was in January? I know it has tapered off considerably, but schools still have issues trying to get substitutes. I very much welcome the...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Paul Kehoe: Will that include pods and everything else? Will everything be taken into account in the review? I know that my own kids hope to be able to get back to mixing with the entire class rather than with the five or six in their pod. Children do not understand. They think if society is coming back to normal, then the classroom should come back to normal as well.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Paul Kehoe: I echo what Deputy Ó Laoghaire said. The job specification of school secretaries has changed dramatically over the years. They are now almost as important as the school principal because they run the school side-by-side with the principal. They now have enormous responsibilities compared with what they had in the past. I encourage the Minister and her Department to do whatever they...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Paul Kehoe: In previous Estimates meetings, I have mentioned walking deputy principals in primary schools. St. Aidan's Primary School in Enniscorthy has over 900 pupils. It has a principal and a teaching vice principal which is not acceptable in this day and age. Secondary schools with 300 or 400 pupils will have a principal and one or two walking principals. There should be parity and all schools...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Paul Kehoe: Absolutely. I agree with that.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Paul Kehoe: I thank the Minister. My next question is for the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan. The effect of the past two years has been huge in respect of students with special educational needs. Has the Minister of State's section in the Department been doing a review on the effects on special needs children and what lessons can be learned from that? At the start of the pandemic in 2020, the...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Paul Kehoe: I have one further question for the Minister, Deputy Foley, before I go to Deputy Farrell. I will come back in also with Deputy Ó Laoghaire. Does the Minister have an update on the publication of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA, report on the review of the senior cycle syllabus? As the Minister is aware, we are doing our own work on this, and before our...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Paul Kehoe: We want to be constructive.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Paul Kehoe: Does the Deputy have any other questions?

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Paul Kehoe: In years gone by, home economics was a subject mainly for females. Society has changed and males must now take a more proactive role in the home. Are there plans to make home economics a mandatory subject for male and female students in secondary schools? Has the Minister or her Department given this any thought? This will be important from the perspective of obesity because home...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Paul Kehoe: I believe it should be administered within the Department of Education. I am not sure if the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, would agree with me, but sin scéal eile. It is a very strange fit for a programme which deals with primary and post-primary schools to be based in the Department of Social Protection. I may have been in government when it was put in there, but...