Results 4,841-4,860 of 19,559 for speaker:Norma Foley

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Admissions (12 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: Section 29 of the Education Act 1998 as inserted by Section 7 of the Education (Admissions to schools) Act 2018 provides for an appeal, where a board of management, or a person acting on behalf of the board of management (normally the school principal) refuses to admit a student to a school, suspends a student for not less than 20 days or permanently excludes a student. Section 29 D of this...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Admissions (12 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: As the Deputy will be aware, for school planning purposes, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas and utilises a Geographical Information System to anticipate school place demand. Information from a range of sources, including Child Benefit data, school enrolment data and information on residential development activity is used for this purpose. Additionally, Project...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Pupil-Teacher Ratio (12 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: Budget 2024 has provided for an unprecedented €10.5 billion investment in education, which includes an increase of €421 million in core current funding, as well as over €80 million in core capital funding. An additional €170 million is also being provided as part of Cost of Living and COVID-19 supports. These additional funds build on significant increases in...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education Standards (12 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: The Programme for Government sets out this Government’s intention to continue to develop our educational system to meet the needs of all students and to tackle disadvantage from an early age. Progressing this ambition, while responding to the particular challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in the Ukraine, has been a key priority for my Department since 2020. I am...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Educational Disadvantage (12 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: During my time as Minister for Education I have shown a strong commitment to addressing educational disadvantage. My Department’s Statement of Strategy, sets out the vision and mission of the Department for an educational system where every child and young person feels valued and is actively supported and nurtured to reach their full potential. It sets as a goal to ensure equity of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Funding (12 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: I wish to advise the Deputy that all teachers who are appointed to permanent teaching posts, or fixed term positions in schools, must be teachers who are registered with the Teaching Council. It is also expected that teachers who are working in a substitute capacity, will be registered with the Teaching Council, which includes amongst other things, having a teaching qualification. ...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (12 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: I can advise the Deputy that between 1stSeptember, 2023, and 6thDecember 2023, a total of 356,799 days substitutable leave absences arose in primary schools, in respect of 30,451 teacher absences. A total of 131,449 days substitutable leave absences arose in voluntary or community and comprehensive post primary schools, in respect of 13,819 teacher absences. These figures are subject to...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education and Training Boards (12 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: The Deputy refers to the Kilkenny-Carlow Education Training Board Psychological Service. I wish to clarify that the education psychological service for all schools in the Kilkenny Carlow area is provided by the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) of the Department of Education. The NEPS service provides access for all schools to:Psychological support in the event of a...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (12 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: The Deputy will be aware that a new school building project for the school in question has been recently completed. As the Deputy may be aware, for school planning purposes, the Department of Education divides the country into 314 school planning areas and uses a Geographical Information System (or GIS) to anticipate school place demand. Information from a range of sources, including...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (12 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: I can confirm to the Deputy, that my Department is in receipt of an application for capital funding, under the Additional School Accommodation (ASA) scheme. The purpose of the Additional Schools Accommodation (ASA) scheme is to ensure that essential mainstream and special education classroom accommodation is available to cater for pupils enrolled each year and where the need cannot be met by...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (12 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: As the Deputy is aware, the site identification and assessment exercise for the new Ériu Community College is ongoing. Potential site options have been identified, including a Minister-owned property. The Deputy will appreciate that negotiations in respect of site acquisitions are, by their nature, sensitive and for that reason I am not in a position to provide further information at...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (12 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: I can confirm to the Deputy that my Department and DDLETB agreed in early 2021 to increase the capacity of the school in question to 1,500 places. There was no timeframe determined for this increase but it was expected that there would be a gradual increase in enrolments over a number of years. In order to facilitate an initial increase in enrolments, modular accommodation was provided...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (7 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the 2022/2023 school year, over 149,000 children, including over 18,000 children with special educational needs, were transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. In addition, school transport scheme services were...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (7 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: 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 149,000 children, including over 18,000 children with special educational needs, are transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. In addition, school transport scheme services are being...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Funding (7 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: I wish to advise the Deputy that my Department does not provide funding for upgrade of traffic management or access to school sites outside of any works required as part of a wider school building project. Individual school authorities are responsible, in the first instance, for ensuring the safety and welfare of children and others in their care, including traffic management measures. ...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (7 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: My Department is providing a payroll service for school secretaries with effect from 1stSeptember 2023. There are currently in excess of 2,600 secretaries on payroll. As part of the implementation of the pay agreement for school secretaries, salary arrears have been calculated for all secretaries eligible for the payment. These arrears payments were received through the payroll on the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Enrolments (7 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: My Department can confirm that 17,880 Ukrainian pupils have been enrolled in schools across Ireland as of 30thNovember 2023. Out of that figure, 11,097 of these pupils have been accommodated in primary schools while 6,783 pupils have enrolled in post-primary schools. This data indicates an enrolment rate of 88.4% among Ukrainian children aged 5-18. A breakdown by county is available in the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Enrolments (7 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: As the Deputy will be aware, for school planning purposes, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas and utilises a Geographical Information System to anticipate school place demand. Information from a range of sources, including Child Benefit data, school enrolment data and information on residential development activity is used for this purpose. Additionally, Project...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Admissions (7 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: In relation to school admissions, it is the responsibility of the managerial authorities of all schools to implement an enrolment policy in accordance with the Education Act, 1998 and the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018. My Department's main responsibility is to ensure that schools in an area can, between them, cater for all pupils seeking school places in that area. Under the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Pupil-Teacher Ratio (7 Dec 2023)

Norma Foley: Budget 2024 has provided for an unprecedented €10.5 billion investment in Education and Schools in Budget 2024 which includes an increase of €421 million in core current funding, as well as over €80 million in core capital funding. An additional €170 million is also being provided as part of Cost of Living and COVID-19 supports. These additional funds build on...