Results 3,641-3,660 of 45,495 for speaker:Simon Harris

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Fees (21 Sep 2023)

Simon Harris: Under the FFI, the State provides funding toward the tuition fee costs of eligible undergraduate higher education students attending an approved course. Funding under the Free Fees Initiative is only available in respect of approved courses within the State. I have been clear that I want to see the student's contribution towards tuition fees in higher education reduce in a meaningful way over...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (21 Sep 2023)

Simon Harris: Being demand-led in nature, there are no restrictions on the number of apprentices that can be registered. The current buoyant labour market, coupled with the recognition of apprenticeship as a valuable employment and skills development opportunity, is a welcome endorsement of this Government’s support of, and ambitions for, Apprenticeships in the tertiary sector However, with...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Admissions (21 Sep 2023)

Simon Harris: The CAO is an independent body, its function is to process applications for undergraduate courses and some postgraduate courses on behalf of the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Enquiries regarding the CAO applications process should be addressed to the CAO directly. Neither I nor my Department have a role in the operation of the CAO. I am aware of some instances in which an...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (21 Sep 2023)

Simon Harris: Ensuring a supply of qualified vets is an important issue for my Department. Workforce planning requirements for the veterinary medicine sector are a matter for my colleague, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine in consultation with the Veterinary Council of Ireland. Officials in my Department have been engaging closely with colleagues in Minister McConalogue's Department in...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Technological Universities (21 Sep 2023)

Simon Harris: Technological Universities (TUs) have been established to drive socio-economic development through the attraction of increased regional investment, skills and employment retention and creation, increased access to higher education, ensuring greater equity and countering educational disadvantage. A national network of 5 TUs stretches across some 25 campuses, bringing the advantages and...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (21 Sep 2023)

Simon Harris: The Public Service Apprenticeship Planoutlines how to grow the number of annual apprenticeship registrations across the public service, including local authorities, to 750 by 2025. The Plan is a key commitment of the Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025. It creates a road-map to the delivery of that target while offering an alternative recruitment approach for public service organisations...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Accommodation (21 Sep 2023)

Simon Harris: The difficulty faced by students in accessing affordable accommodation is an issue which the Government and I are actively pursuing. My Department is committed to addressing the supply of affordable student accommodation through a range of policy measures to activate supply of affordable accommodation. As part of this policy a number of short term projects with planning permission have been...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (21 Sep 2023)

Simon Harris: I understand that Trinity College Dublin has suspended the programme, MSc Mental Health, Child, Adolescent and Family Strand for the 2023/24 academic year. This was as I understand it, due to a number of factors which included a decline in applications to single figures in the last year. Higher Education Institutions are autonomous bodies within the meaning of the Universities Act 1997, the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: State Examinations (21 Sep 2023)

Simon Harris: As the Deputy will be aware, last year my colleague the Minister for Education announced a programme of work for a reimagined Senior Cycle of education which will, in time, include changes in the final assessment procedure. Officials in my Department have been engaging closely with officials in the Department of Education around the issue of transitions and Senior Cycle reform. This includes...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Fees (21 Sep 2023)

Simon Harris: In terms of Graduate Entry Medicine (GEM) tuition fees, the total level of fees charged to GEM students is a matter for the higher education institutions (HEIs), consistent with the principle of their institutional autonomy. It is not open to my Department to intervene in the tuition fee policy of the institutions. The Deputy may be aware that the State currently provides a subsidy to...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Fees (21 Sep 2023)

Simon Harris: Graduate Entry Medicine (GEM) is one of the pathways to study undergraduate medicine. Graduate entry courses require applicants to hold a level 8 qualification prior to entry and completion of a graduate entry medicine degree confers a further level 8 qualification. As the Deputy will be aware, the Free Fees Initiative (FFI) provides tuition fee funding for eligible first time undergraduate...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (21 Sep 2023)

Simon Harris: The Deputy will be aware that late last year I announced that Galway Roscommon ETBs (GRETBs) strategic proposal to develop a Further Education College in Galway city was successful at the first stage of the assessment process under the FET College of the Future Major Projects Fund. This proposal is now at the next stage of development, which involves the development of a preliminary...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (21 Sep 2023)

Simon Harris: I propose to take Questions Nos. 112 and 120 together. In the Funding our Future report which was published in May 2022 and updated last month [August], I confirmed the Government’s intention to increase the funding given to third level institutions and to reduce the cost of education, at all levels, including PhD. The August update highlights the work of Dr Andrea Johnson and Mr David...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (21 Sep 2023)

Simon Harris: The Government and my Department is committed to reducing the cost of college for students and their families and a number of measures were introduced in Budget 2023 benefiting thousands of students. In advance of Budget 2024 this autumn, and as I did last year, I published an options paper on 21stAugust 2023 which sets out for the Government's consideration, various options to the cost of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Accommodation (21 Sep 2023)

Simon Harris: My Department and I are actively working to address the supply of student accommodation in response to the overall supply and affordability being experienced by our students which is supported by Government approval to develop a number of policy responses to activate supply under Housing for All. I have established a dedicated student accommodation unit in my Department to develop and...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Construction Industry (21 Sep 2023)

Simon Harris: My Department is undertaking a series of measures to recruit additional construction workers in to the sector to meet the demands for housing. The Report on the Analysis of Skills for Residential Construction and Retrofitting, 2023 to 2030published last year indicates a need for 50, 831 new entrants into the construction sector, from professional, craft, operative and other trades routes. My...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Grant Payments (21 Sep 2023)

Simon Harris: The Student Grant Scheme is administered by the centralised national grant awarding authority SUSI (Student Universal Support Ireland), a business unit of CDETB (City of Dublin Education and Training Board), on behalf of the Department. As of the 17th September over 90,000 applications have been made to SUSI for the 2023/2024 academic year. I can confirm that since 1 January 2023, SUSI...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (21 Sep 2023)

Simon Harris: The backlogs in apprentice progression, predominantly at phase-2 off-the-job, has been an area of unrelenting focus for this Government. In August 2021, there were almost 12,000 apprentices awaiting off-the-job training. At the end of August this year, 7,578 apprentices were waiting for off-the-job training. Of these 5,257 apprentices were waiting longer than six months. During 2019, some...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Grant Payments (21 Sep 2023)

Simon Harris: Improvements to the student grant scheme has been a priority for me since taking up my Ministerial appointment and I have made many improvements benefitting thousands of students. My Department will continue to invest in higher education in tandem with the reform programme. The Budget 2023 package announced last October provided a number of measures that will offer relief to students for the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Cross-Border Co-operation (21 Sep 2023)

Simon Harris: One of the key instruments to enable North-South mobility is the Memorandum of Understanding on Education and the Common Travel Area, which I, along with my colleague, the Minister for Education and the UK Secretary of State for Education signed in 2021. This lays the foundation for North South student mobility in the basis that it ensured there was no change to the fee/ student support...