Results 3,941-3,960 of 21,588 for speaker:Denis Naughten

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Schemes (18 May 2021)

Denis Naughten: The primary objectives of all measures across the housing sector should be to increase supply of accommodation and keep people in their current homes, be those rented or owned, where those homes meet their needs. While State support is available to those who are renting and cannot meet their housing costs, the State has, since 2014, turned its back on those who have a mortgage and have lost...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Covid-19 Pandemic (18 May 2021)

Denis Naughten: 304. To ask the Minister for Finance the details of his engagement with the IMF over the past 18 months; if he will request the IMF to include health risks in all country specific economic risk reports in view of Covid-19; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26034/21]

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Animal Diseases (18 May 2021)

Denis Naughten: 723. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will expand the use of the gamma interferon test to eradicate bovine TB in the national herd; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26592/21]

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: EU Regulations (18 May 2021)

Denis Naughten: 724. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the status of the application to the EU for PGI status for Irish beef; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26593/21]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: School Transport (13 May 2021)

Denis Naughten: I thank the Minister. Reading between the lines, what she is saying to me in plain English is that, while she hopes it will not happen, it may be that the advice is that school transport should continue to operate at 50%. If that is the case, there will be 13,000 students left on the sides of our roads from the beginning of September because the capacity is not there while services are...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: School Transport (13 May 2021)

Denis Naughten: 75. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans for the school transport service in September 2021; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23965/21]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: School Transport (13 May 2021)

Denis Naughten: School transport applications for the 2021-22 school year are currently being processed by Bus Éireann, but no one knows whether there will be 50% or 100% capacity on second level buses. This issue caused major problems last September and could cause chaos this September for 13,000 post-primary concessionary pupils across the system. We need clarity.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: School Transport (13 May 2021)

Denis Naughten: I accept that it is difficult to be definitive at the moment because we must consider the public health advice, but the Minister's officials are engaging with Bus Éireann and I presume that that involves some scenario planning. Could we be looking at a 50% reduction in capacity? What impact would that have on the 13,000 students who avail of concessionary school transport? Their...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Pupil-Teacher Ratio (13 May 2021)

Denis Naughten: There is something fundamentally wrong with the system if there are 5,000 children in classes of 35 or more. This has a direct impact on the amount of their time teachers can give pupils. It impacts on individual students and has a disproportionate impact on weaker students who have learning difficulties and on brighter students who need encouragement to move a bit further on. As a result,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: State Examinations (13 May 2021)

Denis Naughten: I thank the Minister. The point I want to make is that this cohort of fifth year students, who will sit the exams next year, is unique in that they have never sat a State exam before. They have not had the experience or the pressure involved in a State exam before because they did not sit their junior certificate examinations. These students need additional supports over the coming year....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: State Examinations (13 May 2021)

Denis Naughten: I acknowledge what the Minister is saying but it is important that we also acknowledge that next year's leaving certificate class, this year's fifth year class, finds itself in unique circumstances. Additional supports need to be provided. In general, we need to put additional supports and new approaches in place to deal with and prevent the growing mental health issues that we have among...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Pupil-Teacher Ratio (13 May 2021)

Denis Naughten: 71. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to address large classes in primary schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23964/21]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Pupil-Teacher Ratio (13 May 2021)

Denis Naughten: During the past school year, nearly one in five of our primary school pupils were in classes of 30 or more. The failure to tackle these super-sized classes means that many children are being subjected to a significant educational disadvantage, which has negative long-term consequences for their progression through the education system.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Pupil-Teacher Ratio (13 May 2021)

Denis Naughten: I thank the Minister for her reply. I acknowledge that the pupil-teacher ratio is decreasing and that is positive but this ratio wallpapers over what I believe is an unacceptable situation whereby there are more than 5,000 primary school children in classes of 35 or more. Any teacher in such a situation is not teaching but is undertaking crowd control. That is all that is involved. There...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: State Examinations (13 May 2021)

Denis Naughten: 69. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the steps she is taking to specifically support the leaving certificate class of 2022; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23966/21]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: State Examinations (13 May 2021)

Denis Naughten: Students who sit their exams in June of next year will have missed out on a considerable amount of class time due to the lockdown restrictions. They will be the first leaving certificate class to sit a State examination without ever having completed one before. These two factors, along with the potential threat of further restrictions, in addition to the mental health challenges every pupil...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Psychological Assessments (13 May 2021)

Denis Naughten: To correct the record, if a child is in need of assistive technology in order to access the curriculum fully, this would not be granted without being strongly recommended in a report. Therefore, that report is essential in that scenario. I accept the principle of what the Minister is telling me here but the practical reality on the ground is very different. I know of schools where there...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Psychological Assessments (13 May 2021)

Denis Naughten: 66. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to increase the number of educational psychological assessments allocated to primary schools through the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24786/21]

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Psychological Assessments (13 May 2021)

Denis Naughten: The National Principals Forum has reported that 84% of schools have seen an increase in pupils with additional educational needs in the past four years. Over the same period, only an additional 31 front-line educational psychologists have been appointed to our primary schools, which leaves a dramatic deficiency in capacity within the system.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Psychological Assessments (13 May 2021)

Denis Naughten: I do not disagree with the model that is being used. The difficulty is that, in tandem with that model of supporting schools, in order for students to access additional support, they require a psychological assessment. To have just 31 additional front-line psychologists over the last four years, when 84% of primary school are stating there has been an increase in the number of pupils...