Results 21-40 of 15,027 for speaker:Helen McEntee

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (10 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: I thank the Deputy. This is an issue I know is ongoing and there is significant engagement between the Minister for Transport, the DAA and other relevant bodies in this regard. The Deputy is right; we are an island and we rely heavily on our airports and our air connectivity so it is really important we are not in any way disadvantaged. However, it is also important that we support the...

Ceisteanna ó na Comhaltaí Eile - Other Members’ Questions (10 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and acknowledge the huge amount of work he has done in bringing autism to the fore and ensuring it is firmly front and centre on the Government agenda. The programme for Government clearly sets out and clearly prioritises the need to implement an autism innovation strategy and put it on a statutory footing, so that something will always be there and...

Ceisteanna ó na Comhaltaí Eile - Other Members’ Questions (10 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: The Deputy is right in that we need to be better at forward planning and to do better. That is why, this year, we are about 40% ahead of where we were this time last year. That is why I intend that, by this time next year, we will have identified children and have children who know exactly where they will be going to school. It has to be the case that every single child is treated equally....

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (10 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: I reassure the Deputy and, most important, the parents and their children that the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, and I, working with the NCSE and the Department, will ensure the children have school places come September and do everything possible to make sure those places, in so far as it is possible, are within the children’s communities and that they have the right resources...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: The knee-jerk reaction or response to anything that goes wrong - to call for people to be sacked or removed from a board - does not help anybody. It does not actually change the fact that we need to make progress, that we need people in place to be able to make sure the children's hospital can open, and that we need to make sure any recommendations coming from the reports we have discussed...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: There will certainly be no timeframe if the Deputy wants the entire board sacked and removed. We would have to replace them and then make sure that progress can somehow continue without a board. We cannot make progress in opening any hospital bed, opening any acute hospital or having any surgery in the new hospital if we do not have a board. Let us be realistic here. What do we have to do?

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: We have to act on the facts that we know.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: A report that was commissioned by HIQA clearly states that children were operated on with medical devices that should not have been used. We are acting. The persons responsible - we all have responsibility here in this House - including those who carried out the operations and those who decided to have operations on young children who did not need them, have to be held accountable too, and...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: It is not going to help a single person the Deputy has mentioned.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: From the Government's perspective, our view, my view and the view of the Minister for communications is that the era of self-regulation is over and it has to be over. The Online Safety Commissioner needs to ensure - I know that she will - that our strategies and the commission's strategies focus on what is actually happening here and that includes algorithms. I fully agree with the Deputy...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. At the outset I acknowledge his role and leadership in the previous Government in supporting the previous Government so that Ireland was to the fore in supporting Palestine and supporting a two-state solution while calling for the unconditional release of hostages. However, I utterly reject his assertion that this Government has in any way changed...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: It is in the programme for Government and we have said very clearly that we will implement it. The Tánaiste will meet with Senator Black in the coming days. Senator Black is the Member of the Seanad who brought forward this Bill. She is very clear that we need to get this right and that this is not straightforward. The Deputy is right: it is because of the ruling of the ICJ that the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: The Government is not a spectator here. This issue was brought to attention in September 2023. The Department of Health was notified the year after and a subsequent review is taking place and is at an advanced stage. The number of people who have been contacted is increasing. There is further work under way, through an action plan that is currently being drafted, to try to identify any...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: Similar to the previous question, the priority for all of us here, and this Government, is to make sure children are safe, be it online or offline or in their homes, bedrooms, communities and schools. It is an absolute priority to make sure children are protected. The world we live in is changing and for young people the world of online, social media and technology is part and parcel of...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: I thank Deputy Doherty for raising this question. We have all been utterly appalled by the information we received and that we have been made aware of this week. As the Deputy mentioned, the information in the HIQA report sets out very clearly that a number of springs that were not medically approved were implanted into the bodies of three small children. The springs were corrosive and...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Public Sector Pensions (10 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: I note that my Department has previously provided a response to the question raised by you in PQ 18214/25. As advised, the Department of Education has been providing a payroll service for former grant funded school secretaries with effect from 1st September 2023. The provision of this payroll service is part of a package agreed with Fórsa, the trade union representing school...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (10 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year over 172,500 children, are transported daily in approximately 7,900 vehicles across 10,300 routes to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. These daily trips cover over 100 million kilometres. This figure includes over...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (10 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: I propose to take Questions Nos. 212 and 213 together. As the Deputy is aware, the new special school will be based at the former primary school building in Carrignavar. The scope of repurposing works to facilitate the establishment of the new special school is currently being worked through by Project Managers and their Design Team. A contractor framework is in place to facilitate...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (10 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: The brief for the major building project for St Killian’s Special School is the development of a 16 classroom special school for pupils with special educational needs, at the current site of St Killian’s Special School, Old Youghal Road, Mayfield, Cork. This major project is being delivered under the Departments ADAPT Programme. The ADAPT Programme uses a professional...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Data (10 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: Please find attached requested data. Please note that 2023-2024 is the most recent year we have final published class data for on the department website. We expect to publish class data for 2024-25 in June 2025. The data provided is based on mainstream classes in mainstream primary schools and are collated from the relevant Class Size tables published on the department website and can be...