Results 401-420 of 15,060 for speaker:Helen McEntee

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education Policy (27 Mar 2025)

Helen McEntee: My Department’s Circular 0032/2017, was issued to the Boards of Management of all recognised primary and post-primary schools and to the Chief Executives of the Education and Training Boards. Ultimately, decisions on school uniforms are a matter for individual schools and Boards of Management. This Circular sets out the principles of cost-effective practice to be adopted by...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (27 Mar 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 daily to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. These daily trips cover over 100 million kilometres. This figure includes...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Admissions (27 Mar 2025)

Helen McEntee: I can assure the Deputy that the provision of school places to meet the needs of children and young people at primary and post primary level, including children and young people with special educational needs is an absolute priority for the Department of Education. In order to plan for school place needs, the Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas and utilises a...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Facilities (27 Mar 2025)

Helen McEntee: My Department is required to manage the allocated capital funding across all schools in the country. The Department’s approach is to maximise the usage of existing capacity in schools and, in tandem with this, to manage the progression of the existing pipeline of projects within available budgets and in line with the Government’s Infrastructure Guidelines. The Department...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (27 Mar 2025)

Helen McEntee: Since 2020, my department has delivered over €5.8 billion of an investment in our school buildings throughout the country, involving the completion of over 1,300 school building projects. The Department’s school building programme is delivered through a range of procurement strategies, which are tailored to the scale and complexity of our projects and programmes. This...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (27 Mar 2025)

Helen McEntee: This Government is fully committed to ensuring that every child has a positive school experience, with access to qualified and engaged teachers who are dedicated to supporting their learning. A number of measures to support schools to recruit teachers registered to teach Irish mathematics, and modern languages have been implemented including:Budget 2024 included the expansion of upskilling...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (27 Mar 2025)

Helen McEntee: To assist schools in terms of Wellbeing supports, my Department has put in place an Occupational Health Strategy as a supportive resource for staff and leaders in schools. The aim of the Occupational Health Strategy is to promote the health and wellbeing of employees in the workplace, with a strong focus on prevention. The Occupational Health Strategy comprises the Employee Assistance Service...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (27 Mar 2025)

Helen McEntee: This Government is fully committed to ensuring that every child has a positive school experience, with access to qualified and engaged teachers who are dedicated to supporting their learning. This remains a top priority. As with other sectors, while the vast majority of allocated teaching posts are filled, recruitment challenges exist in some schools. To address teacher supply issues, my...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: National Development Plan (27 Mar 2025)

Helen McEntee: Since 2020, my department has invested over €5.8 billion in our schools throughout the country, involving the completion of over 1,300 school building projects. We continue to have a strong pipeline of projects for delivery under the school building programme with construction currently underway at approximately 300 projects, which includes new school buildings some of which are being...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Fire Safety (26 Mar 2025)

Helen McEntee: I propose to take Questions Nos. 59, 60 and 61 together. My department, together with the National Council for Special Education, has been working with parents, schools, patron bodies and other stakeholders in Dublin to provide sufficient specialist school placements for children with special educational needs. The special school referred to is one of the 5 new special schools due to...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Educational Disadvantage (26 Mar 2025)

Helen McEntee: Tackling educational disadvantage and supporting students to fulfil their full potential in life is a key priority for me as Minister for Education, and for the Government. The DEIS programme is a key policy of Government to tackle concentrated educational disadvantage at school level. It provides a targeted range of supports and is additional to the universal supports provided to all...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Funding (26 Mar 2025)

Helen McEntee: My Department is committed to providing funding to recognised primary and post-primary schools in the Free Education Scheme by way of per capita grants. The two main grants are the Capitation grant to cater for day-to-day running costs such as heating, lighting, cleaning, insurance and general up-keep, and the Ancillary grant to cater for the cost of employing ancillary services staff....

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Funding (26 Mar 2025)

Helen McEntee: The Department is committed to providing funding to recognised primary and post-primary schools in the free education scheme by way of per capita grants. The two main grants are the Capitation grant to cater for day-to-day running costs such as heating, lighting, cleaning, insurance and general up-keep, and the Ancillary grant to cater for the cost of employing ancillary services staff....

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teagasc na Gaeilge (26 Mar 2025)

Helen McEntee: Tá an tsraith pictiúr, nó seichimh pictiúr, mar chuid den Bhéaltriail Ghaeilge d’iarrthóirí Ardleibhéil agus Gnáthleibhéil, agus tá 40% de mhóriomlán na marcanna don Ghaeilge san Ardteistiméireacht ar fáil don Bhéaltriail. Mar fhreagairt ar cheisteanna ar tugadh suntas dóibh i dtaighde na...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (26 Mar 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 daily to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. These daily trips cover over 100 million kilometres. This figure includes...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Funding (26 Mar 2025)

Helen McEntee: My Department is committed to providing funding to recognised primary and post-primary schools in the Free Education Scheme by way of per capita grants. The two main grants are the Capitation grant to cater for day-to-day running costs such as heating, lighting, cleaning, insurance and general up-keep, and the Ancillary grant to cater for the cost of employing ancillary services staff....

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Funding (26 Mar 2025)

Helen McEntee: My Department is committed to providing funding to recognised primary and post-primary schools in the Free Education Scheme by way of per capita grants. The two main grants are the Capitation grant to cater for day-to-day running costs such as heating, lighting, cleaning, insurance and general up-keep, and the Ancillary grant to cater for the cost of employing ancillary services staff....

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (26 Mar 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 daily to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. These daily trips cover over 100 million kilometres. This figure includes...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (26 Mar 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 daily to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. These daily trips cover over 100 million kilometres. This figure includes...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (26 Mar 2025)

Helen McEntee: 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 secretaries, following a series of engagements at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) in 2022. The agreement provided for...