Results 3,081-3,100 of 17,531 for speaker:Jan O'Sullivan

Other Questions: School Accommodation (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: We are taking in a considerable amount more than we expected in terms of taxation of various kinds. The Government believes we should be investing in public infrastructure, particularly in schools but also in other areas of public infrastructure. As the economy recovers, there will be more public money to invest. We are funding the schools primarily through public investment, which is as...

Other Questions: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: All mainstream schools have been allocated additional teaching resources to cater for children with specific learning disabilities, including dyslexia, either under the general allocation model at primary school level or though high incidence and learning support allocations for post-primary schools. Schools have access to psychological assessments through the National Educational...

Other Questions: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The Deputy is talking about a situation she is very well aware of in a particular school. In general, schools should, where they can, provide facilities at a cost that is not too prohibitive and they should certainly consider the kind of organisation to which they are providing the use of the school. However, I do not know the individual circumstances of the particular school. The...

Other Questions: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: I would be happy to meet the Dyslexia Association of Ireland, although, to the best of my knowledge, I have not had a request for a meeting. I am not clear from what the Deputy has said whether the classroom is used during or after school hours.

Other Questions: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: In general, we would encourage schools to ensure school premises are used for different kinds of appropriate uses, and I certainly think this is appropriate. I would be happy to find out more about exactly what the issue is and to see if we can help to resolve it.

Other Questions: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The primary focus from the Department's perspective is to ensure we provide in-school supports for children with learning needs, and that would be my main driving force in terms of working on the new model. In addition, the issue of diagnosis should not be an obstacle to getting the supports children need. I would be happy to look at this issue. The Deputies have pointed to two different...

Other Questions: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The National Council for Special Education identified that the current model for allocating resource teachers to schools is potentially inequitable because access to professional assessments is not always readily available to those who cannot afford to access them privately. The council also advised that the current model leads to unnecessary labelling of children from a young age. For the...

Other Questions: School Accommodation (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: As I stated at the outset, building projects have been approved for Loreto secondary school and Wexford CBS, which will provide increased capacity. As a result of the information that came to us last week through that meeting attended by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, my Department is making contact with each post-primary school to request details of their...

Other Questions: School Accommodation (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: He gave us a full picture.

Other Questions: School Accommodation (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: Schools were being built in the past five years.

Other Questions: School Accommodation (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: That is not right.

Other Questions: School Accommodation (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: We did a lot. We had the marriage equality referendum, for example.

Other Questions: School Accommodation (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: Much work was done in the school building area over the past five years, despite the state of the economy. There should be fair credit given to my predecessor, Deputy Quinn, and the Government for ensuring that we did not leave children without school places and that we made projections and built schools. I am using the figures that we have for the Wexford area but, by all means, the Deputy...

Other Questions: School Accommodation (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: As I advised the Deputy earlier, on 17 November I announced that four primary schools and nine post-primary schools will open in 2017 and 2018 as a result of the outcome of the latest demographic exercises conducted by my Department. My officials use a geographical information system to identify where the pressure for additional school places will arise. The system uses data from the...

Other Questions: School Accommodation (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: In general, the percentage of schools built through PPPs is very low but we can get the Deputy the specific information for Wexford. These are generally done in bundles and the projects are put out to tender. It is a tendering process like any other, so the information is available. We managed to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio in the most recent budget. We have very large classes and...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Special Educational Needs Staffing (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The National Council for Special Education, NCSE, published advice in 2013 which identified that the current model for allocating resource teachers to schools is potentially inequitable and recommended the development of a new allocation model. A new model based on the profiled needs of each school rather than on the diagnosed disability of individual children has been developed. This new...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Special Educational Needs Staffing (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: There was no reduction in the resource hours given to the schools. There were extra supporting materials for the schools and the testing of the pupil planning process and the outcome of reporting. There were not unlimited resources. They have received their resource allocation for 2015-2016 and schools that might gain under the new model presumably would have got extra resources. This...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Special Educational Needs Staffing (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: There would have to be some limit on resources. We could not give an unlimited number of resource hours to a school, whether in a pilot or a new model. My understanding is that a school would not have reduced resources but there would not be unlimited resources. If I can clarify that further at a later stage for the Deputy, I will do so. There will be enough resources to ensure the new...

Other Questions: School Accommodation (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: As the Deputy will be aware, I announced in November last the need for the establishment of four new primary schools and nine post-primary schools to cater for increased demographics across a number of locations in 2017 and 2018. The demographic projections for the Wexford town area do not indicate that a new post primary school is required. As part of the Department's school capital...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Teachers' Remuneration (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The pay agreements are part of the way in which these things function in Ireland. The Haddington Road agreement was signed up to by all the teaching unions. The Lansdowne Road agreement was signed up to by the INTO although the other two unions have issues with it. As I said in my opening remarks, the emphasis in the Lansdowne Road agreement is on restoring salaries to lower paid workers...