Results 3,641-3,660 of 6,632 for speaker:Rose Conway-Walsh

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (19 Oct 2022)

Rose Conway-Walsh: I cannot do a lot in six minutes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (19 Oct 2022)

Rose Conway-Walsh: I thank Deputy Harris. I will go straight for it so in terms of North-South enrolment and the Minister's comments on it. I welcome some of the Minister's comments but am a bit concerned that he talks about what has already been done. I acknowledge the good collaboration between some of the institutes, and the research hubs and the development in that regard. There is still greater...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (19 Oct 2022)

Rose Conway-Walsh: We have outlined that in the report. I welcome that the Minister is doing that but there needs to be additionality in terms of what is here so maybe a deeper dive into the specifics.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (19 Oct 2022)

Rose Conway-Walsh: I wish to ask the Minister about the veterinary college and the situation with vets in the country. He will know that at the moment we only have University College Dublin, UCD, and from memory there are around 80 places there. We have a huge shortage so we find ourselves with hundreds of students having to go abroad every year to train as vets. Meanwhile, and we talk about workforce...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Technological Universities (18 Oct 2022)

Rose Conway-Walsh: Can the Minister tell me if there is any reason students from the technological universities would be told the amount that could be allocated to the student assistance fund will be halved this year? I ask the Minister to look into this matter and give me some information regarding how the distribution of the student assistance fund is undertaken so we can ensure there is fairness in this regard.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Apprenticeship Programmes (18 Oct 2022)

Rose Conway-Walsh: I welcome the expansion of apprenticeships. I ask the Minister for an update on the waiting lists for accessing the class-based training for each of the stages and when that backlog is going to be cleared.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (18 Oct 2022)

Rose Conway-Walsh: 90. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to address the inequity experienced by PhD researchers who are excluded from the €500 one-off payment; if the PhD researchers excluded are on average on lower stipends; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51727/22]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (18 Oct 2022)

Rose Conway-Walsh: What steps is the Minister taking to address the inequity experienced by PhD researchers, specifically those who are excluded from the €500 once-off payment, and if the PhD researchers excluded are on the average or the lower stipends? Has the Minister's approach excluded PhD researchers most in need? I say that given all PhD researchers are in a very difficult situation, but...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (18 Oct 2022)

Rose Conway-Walsh: The problem is in terms of announcing different things and saying there are different amounts of money available in the budget. Rents have increased 82% since the Government came into office, which compares with an average of 17% across the rest of the EU. That is an 82% increase in rents and wages have gone nowhere near keeping up with that, never mind the SUSI grants or PhD stipends. In...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (18 Oct 2022)

Rose Conway-Walsh: I welcome that. We should look at the apprenticeship model because apprentices have worker status and employment contracts, and they get paid more each year as the balance between the learning and the work shifts. I think that is important for us to look at. If there is a model already there that works in terms of respecting PhD researchers, we need to examine that. We need to deal with...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Expenditure (18 Oct 2022)

Rose Conway-Walsh: This year the money collected from the National Training Fund, NTF, is estimated, as the Minister said, to pass €1 billion for the first time. However, he is only proposing to spend about two thirds of that. Some €340 million will go unspent. On top of that, the Minister said there is more than €1 billion sitting in reserve from unspent funds from the past few years....

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Expenditure (18 Oct 2022)

Rose Conway-Walsh: I was cut off there when I wanted to talk about the severe problems we have in workforce planning. Today at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science when we were talking about mental health and the need for resources on mental health within schools, the point was made around the point of advertising vacancies when there are...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Expenditure (18 Oct 2022)

Rose Conway-Walsh: 82. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated total expenditure from the National Training Fund in 2022; the allocated expenditure for this coming year as part of budget 2023; the estimated reserve in the National Training Fund by the end of 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51724/22]

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Expenditure (18 Oct 2022)

Rose Conway-Walsh: Will the Minister explain the reduction in expenditure on the National Training Fund from €752 million in 2022 to €682 million in 2023? Will he outline the estimated reserve by the end of 2023? Why are we reducing our expenditure when the reserve continues to grow so rapidly?

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Tax Reliefs (18 Oct 2022)

Rose Conway-Walsh: 80. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he has engaged with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and the Minister for Finance on extending the renters' tax rebate to students and parents as well as PhD researchers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51723/22]

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Tax Reliefs (18 Oct 2022)

Rose Conway-Walsh: Last Tuesday the Tánaiste said he hoped the Government could extend the renter's tax rebate to parents who help their children with rent while they are studying. He added the Minister for Finance was examining ways this could be done. I ask the Minister to provide us with an update on the Government's work on this area.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Tax Reliefs (18 Oct 2022)

Rose Conway-Walsh: I welcome that move, which was absolutely necessary. We should never have put students in the situation of being excluded in the first place. Will the Minister clarify the situation of PhD renters and whether they have been included? PhD students and researchers need action like everybody else. My follow-up question is whether there is any cohort of students paying out money for rent...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Tax Reliefs (18 Oct 2022)

Rose Conway-Walsh: I ask that the Minister look at the situation of PhD researchers. He knows the inequity that is already built in by virtue of their not getting the stipend they should be getting or indeed not being treated as workers, which they should be. It highlights why they might be excluded in this situation. I hope a way will be found to include them. Of course, it is just €500 and in the...

Domestic Electricity and Gas Disconnections: Motion [Private Members] (18 Oct 2022)

Rose Conway-Walsh: I thank Deputy O'Rourke for bringing this motion before the House. Unless this Government is completely disconnected, it knows the fear and anxiety that people have in their homes this winter about just trying to keep the lights and electricity on. The low take-up of the hardship funds needs to be investigated because there is a complete mismatch between the anxiety and the stress that...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Defective Building Materials (18 Oct 2022)

Rose Conway-Walsh: The Minister needs to come to Mayo. He needs to talk to these homeowners. They are absolutely sick and tired of the scheme being presented as if somehow it is being gifted to them by the Government. What is forgotten in all of this is that these people have been failed time and again. They have been failed in the very beginning by the light regulation and in how they have been exposed to...