Results 4,981-5,000 of 19,559 for speaker:Norma Foley

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (30 Nov 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 provided...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Renewable Energy Generation (30 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: I was delighted to launch, together with the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, Ossian Smyth, the first phase of the SchoolsPhotovoltaic Programme on 23rd November. It will allow up to 4,000 schools nationwide to get solar PV panels to reduce their energy bills and their carbon emissions. This ties in with the strong ethos of environmental...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (30 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the 2022/23 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 are being...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (30 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: The Government is committed to the delivery of quality public services, and will continue to approach public service pay in a balanced way that is reasonable and fair to both public servants and the taxpayer. This has been achieved through series of national collective agreements applying across the public sector agreed between trade unions and the Government. The value of public pay...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (30 Nov 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 Enrolments (30 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: As the Deputy may be aware, for school planning purposes, my Department 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 Child Benefit Data, school enrolment data and information on residential development activity is used for this purpose. In addition,...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Citizens' Assembly (30 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: The Programme for Government commits to establishing a Citizens’ Assembly on the Future of Education ensuring that the voices of young people and those being educated are central. The Citizens’ Assembly on Drugs Use recently held its final meeting and the final report from this assembly is scheduled to be published before the end of 2023. The establishment of the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teaching Qualifications (30 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: Under the Teaching Council Acts 2001-2015 the Teaching Council is the body with the statutory authority and responsibility for the regulation of the teaching profession in Ireland including the registration of Teachers in the State. The Teaching Council is the professional standards body for the teaching profession, which promotes and regulates professional standards in teaching. The...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Funding (30 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: The Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027 was published last year and is underpinned by an investment of €200m to support its implementation, committed to under Ireland’s National Development Plan (NDP). The first tranche of €50m issued to all recognised primary and post-primary schools in late 2021. The previous Digital Strategy for Schools 2015 to 2020 saw overall...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education Schemes (30 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: I propose to take Questions Nos. 116 and 118 together. The Department of Education is committed to supporting the emotional wellbeing of our children and I am very pleased to provide an update on the significant progress that has been made on Strands 1 and 2 of the pilot in almost 650 primary schools across the country. I am also delighted to announce that my Department has secured...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Online Safety (30 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: As the Deputy will be aware, I recently introduced a numbers of measures to support internet safety and awareness for primary school age children and their parents, particularly in relation to smartphone usage. New guidelines for parents entitled “Keeping Childhood Smartphone Free” are now available online and will be issued to all primary schools. The new guidelines contain...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Health Promotion (30 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: The Know the Score programme is a substance misuse programme published in 2019 for Transition Year or 5th year pupils. It was jointly developed by the HSE, my Department and the Drugs and Alcohol Task Forces. It is the first national evidence-based resource on alcohol and drugs for Senior Cycle students. The overall aim of the resource is to enable young people to make conscious and informed...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (30 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: Ensuring that every child's experience in school is positive and that they have qualified, engaged teachers available to support them in their learning is a priority area of action for the Government. A range of targeted measures have been introduced to increase the availability of substitute teachers including:Ensuring initial teacher education providers created existing flexibilities that...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (30 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: The project to which the Deputy refers, is devolved for delivery to the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA). This project is part of the bundle referred to as ‘Project Liffey'. I am pleased to advise that the procurement for the design team is currently underway and is nearing completion. Once the procurement process is finalised, the design team will be formally appointed to...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (30 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: I can confirm to the Deputy, that my Department is in receipt of an application from the school in question for the Additional School Accommodation (ASA) scheme and has been engaging with the school in this respect. The Department continues to undertake forward planning in relation to meeting the accommodation needs of increasing demographics at post-primary, students from Ukraine and...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Admissions (30 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: The Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018, is an important piece of legislation which has introduced a more parent-friendly, equitable and consistent approach to how school admissions policy operates for the almost 4,000 primary and post-primary schools. Parents have the right to choose which school to apply to and where the school has places available the pupil should be admitted....

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education Welfare Service (30 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: As part of Budget 2024, additional targeted funding will be provided to social inclusion and educational supports which help facilitate the continued provision of high quality and inclusive school and education systems and promote improved learning outcomes for pupils and students. Funding of €5 million is being provided for additional Educational Welfare Officers posts. It will...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (30 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: 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. As the Deputy may be aware, for school planning purposes, the Department of Education divides the country into 314 school planning areas...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (30 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: The project to which the Deputy refers has been devolved for delivery to Laois and Offaly Education and Training Board (LOETB). I am pleased to advise that the project is currently at stage 2a (detailed design) of the architectural design process. The stage 2a report has been received in the Department, and a meeting is scheduled to take place between my Department's professional and...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education Policy (30 Nov 2023)

Norma Foley: Ensuring that every child's experience in school is positive and that they have qualified, engaged teachers available to support them in their learning is a priority area of action for the Government. Budget 2024 contains a range of measures that demonstrate my commitment to continued investment in our education system. In addition to numerous actions I have taken in recent years to address...