Results 3,681-3,700 of 45,291 for speaker:Simon Harris

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (13 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1384 to 1386, inclusive, together. Officials from my Department are engaging with Higher Education Institutions to ascertain possible expansion on existing programmes from 2023, including in the health and social care professions. Any increase in student places requires corresponding placements in the health sector for students. Significant engagement is...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Grant Payments (13 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: The main support available to students is the statutory based Student Grant Scheme where students are studying for the first time or are progressing to study at a higher level. The decision on eligibility for a student grant is a matter, in the first instance, for the centralized student grant awarding authority SUSI (Student Universal Support Ireland) to determine. Assessment of means...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Data Protection (13 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: My Department is committed to the highest level of data protection for the personal data which it processes and takes its compliance with data protection obligations very seriously. My Department has a range of policies in place which encompass ICT usage, removing files, Information security Policy, GDPR compliance among others. These policies apply to staff regardless of location i.e....

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Road Network (1 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: The Deputy makes an important point about cost-benefit analyses. This has been a bugbear of mine in my constituency for a long time. There are parts of certain rural communities, including some in County Wicklow, that will never measure up to a cost-benefit analysis that is based on an urban area. The Deputy poses an interesting challenge, to the system and to the Government, as to how we...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Road Network (1 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: Indeed, that is a prescient point about how some people, not the Ceann Comhairle, view the expenditure of money in urban Ireland versus rural Ireland. I thank Deputy Ó Cuív for raising the matter. I am happy to respond on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Rural and Community Development. The Deputy raised an interesting point about where the responsibility falls. That is...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Public Transport (1 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: I thank my colleague for raising this very important matter and for his impassioned plea on behalf of his own constituents in County Mayo in terms of the need for improved public transport services, particularly improved bus capacity and airport access. In my own ministerial role, I am also very taken with the points he makes about the importance of capacity for college students. We are...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Public Transport (1 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: I certainly will resist the urge, too. I thank Deputy Dillon for taking the opportunity to highlight, alongside the need for improved public transport links for rural Ireland and County Mayo, the strong concerns and views in his own community and constituency in respect of the N17 from Knock to Collooney and the importance of that project to the west and particularly to counties Mayo and...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Health Strategies (1 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Burke for raising this important matter, which affects so many people and to which so many others are predisposed as well. We have objectively seen service improvements for patients with haemochromatosis in recent years. The 2019 GP contractual improvements involved moving services. People sometimes had to go to hospital for services that can now be accessed from the local...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Health Strategies (1 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: I am doing them all.

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Health Strategies (1 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: I thank my colleague, Deputy Colm Burke, for raising this important matter. I am pleased to respond here today on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health. Hereditary haemochromatosis is a common recessive disease resulting in over-absorption of iron from the gastrointestinal tract. Over time, excess iron accumulates in the cells of organs including the liver, pancreas and heart,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (1 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: The short answer to Deputy Farrell's question is "Yes, absolutely". We need to move beyond the year to year and look at how we can systemically create a better structure that works for the health service, the higher education institutions and students. If we get this right, the prize can be significant, with a large expansion of third level education in health and social care services....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Education Policy (1 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for this question, a version of which he quite regularly puts down. It is important that we make sure the third level education system and our skills infrastructure are prepared for the future requirements of our economy and society. We are undergoing a dual transition, with the greening of the economy and the digital transformation, and we have to make sure the third...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Education Policy (1 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: SOLAS has a unit that specifically monitors labour market needs. I do not think it will come as a huge surprise to the Deputy that we are seeing significant requirements for people in construction, ICT and digital skills and a range of other sectors. Bulletins published monthly in that regard are useful and informative. The question as to how we should respond is the especially...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: National Training Fund (1 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: The National Training Fund is a dedicated fund to upskill people in employment and provide training and reskilling opportunities for those who are unemployed. It also funds research on existing and likely future skills requirements of the economy. In 2023, more than €9 million is being invested from the fund in these schemes for these purposes. More than €3 million is...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: National Training Fund (1 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: The NTF surplus stood at €1.37 billion at the end of 2022 and is forecast to increase to €1.5 billion by the end of 2023. I am very much aware of those proposals and am engaging with those organisations and others to try to come up with proposals in advance of the discussions for the Estimates.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Student Accommodation (1 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Durkan for this question. Of course, the Deputy is correct. Obviously, we need to look at what can be done quickly but we also need to look at how we can break what I believe now is a cycle in terms of this annual situation that students and their families encounter in trying to identify student accommodation. That is why I have changed student accommodation policy in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Student Accommodation (1 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: I certainly will do that. I agree that the student accommodation piece on campus is, of course, about student accommodation, but it is about mental health, well-being, development, the college experience and reassurance, perhaps for the parent, to know that the student has safe accommodation on campus near where he or she is going about his or her business and education. It is my...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Student Accommodation (1 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: Student accommodation is key. What we need to do here is change the mindset. Colleges need to see the provision of student accommodation as a core part of their work. That is not the Government lecturing them. It is the Government saying we will work with them on it. If they come forward with the plans, we will try and get some of the funding. Let us work in partnership to get that...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (1 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Colm Burke for this important question. I assure the Deputy at the outset that significant engagement is ongoing between my Department, the Department of Health, the Higher Education Authority, HEA, and the higher education sector to develop a joined-up approach to address system-level demand in health care disciplines, including radiation therapy. We are trying to move...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (1 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: I find myself in agreement with Deputy Colm Burke. We need to be training more people to work in the health service. We need to be specifically training more people to work in areas including the one the Deputy has mentioned around radiation therapy, but we need to do it in a manner that works. We need to do it in a way that is not ad hoc. We need to do it in a way that is grounded in the...