Results 5,141-5,160 of 17,531 for speaker:Jan O'Sullivan

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Payments (27 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: As part of a comprehensive customer service and communications strategy provided by Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI), to ensure that all necessary avenues are open to applicants to receive the information they need, a dedicated email and phone line service is provided by SUSI for Oireachtas members. This was established to meet an identified need for applicants who choose to engage...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (27 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: An application in respect of additional accommodation has been received in respect of the school referred to by the Deputy. As the Deputy will appreciate, in view of the financial constraints within which my Department is operating, the position is that priority is being given to school applications for essential mainstream classroom accommodation. In the circumstances, my Department is...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staffing (27 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: As the Deputy will be aware, DEIS - Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools, is my Departments main policy instrument for tackling educational disadvantage. The recently published ESRI report on "Learning from the Evaluation of DEIS" which was commissioned by my Department, draws together the learning to date from the implementation of DEIS and identifies some of the challenges for...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (27 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs) for allocating a quantum of Special Needs Assistant (SNA) support for each school annually taking into account the assessed care needs of children qualifying for SNA support enrolled in the school. Where children have significant care needs whereby...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Management (27 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: A Board of Management established under Section 14 of the Education Act 1998, other than a Board of Management of a school established or maintained by an Education and Training Board (ETB), is currently exempt from the Freedom of Information Acts. Section 18 of the Education Act 1998 requires schools, other than schools established or maintained by an ETB, to keep all proper and usual...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education and Training Boards Administration (26 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: This is a day to day operational matter for SOLAS who manage the Safepass programme and I have asked them to contact the Deputy directly to clarify the position.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Health Services Provision (26 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: There are no plans currently for the provision of Health (Amendment) Act cards to survivors who have accessed Caranua, the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Board. In this regard I would point out that those applying to Caranua can continue to be assessed under the medical card scheme and any awards made by Caranua are disregarded in the income assessment.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (26 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 793 and 794 together. I wish to advise the Deputy that there are now more Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) and Resource teachers available for allocation than ever before. As part of Budget 2015, I announced that an additional 365 SNA posts are being provided in 2015, as well as an additional 480 Resource Teachers, to take into account increased demand...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Higher Education Courses Provision (26 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: Springboard is a specific initiative that strategically targets funding of free higher education courses to enable unemployed people to upskill or reskill in areas where there are real, identified labour market skills shortages or employment opportunities. Decisions on proposals to be funded are made by an independent panel with industry and educational expertise having regard to published...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Facilities (26 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The needs of the college will be considered in the context of budgetary resources and having regard to competing demands.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Institutions (26 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The position is that the President of All Hallows College contacted my Department in May of last year to advise of its intention to close. All Hallows is a private college and is not an approved institution under the Higher Education Authority (HEA). It does not receive core funding, however, my Department provides grant in lieu of tuition fee funding to the College in respect of three...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (26 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 798 and 799 together. The Apprenticeship Council is required to submit a report to the Minister for Education and Skills, by 31 June 2015, on viable new apprenticeships. To achieve this goal, the Council's first task was to issue a call for proposals from a consortia of industry, education and training providers, to develop new apprenticeships in areas outside...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Appeals (26 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The student to which the Deputy refers, recently appealed the decision of the awarding authority to the independent Student Grants Appeals Board (SGAB). The appeal will be heard within the 60 day timeframe set out in the Student Support Act 2011. The decision of the SGAB will be communicated directly to the student in due course.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teaching Contracts (26 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: As the Deputy may be aware the report of the Expert Group on Fixed-Term and Part-Time Employment in Primary and Second Level Education in Ireland was published in September 2014. At the time of publication I gave a commitment to implement the report with effect from September 2015. Following consultation with the education partners Circulars 23/2015 and 24/2015 detailing the arrangements and...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Closures (26 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: I wish to advise the Deputy that my Department is not aware of any plans to close the school to which she refers. The Deputy may be aware that my Department has agreed to a request from the Patron for a change to fully vertical co-educational status for three national schools in the area in question. The change of status for these schools will take effect from September next. The Patron's...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (26 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The major building project for Clifden Community School is at an advanced stage of architectural planning, Stage 2b - Detailed Design. The pre-qualification process has taken place and a short list of contractors is being finalised by the Design Team. It is anticipated that the Design Team will shortly be in a position to issue tender documents to the selected contractors.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Institutions Mergers (26 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: As the Deputy will aware, Mr Michael Kelly has been leading a process of consultation with stakeholders in the south east. Given the recent changes in governing authorities in both Carlow IT and Waterford IT and the appointment of a new interim President in Waterford IT in April, I decided to extend the process to allow Mr Kelly time to engage with the new governing authorities and the new...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Educational Disadvantage (26 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: As the Deputy may be aware, I have recently announced a process for the review of the DEIS Programme. Pending the completion of this process, I have decided to pause the offsetting of legacy posts in DEIS schools for the 2015/16 school year. This decision only applies for the coming school year and is not retrospective.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Curriculum (26 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: You will be aware that last week the leadership of the two post primary teacher unions, the ASTI and TUi, reached an agreement with me on Junior Cycle reform. Our agreement was set out in our joint document "Junior Cycle Reform: Joint Statement on Principles and Implementation" published last Friday. I have to acknowledge the support that the National Parents Council Post Primary and the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Facilities (26 May 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The needs of the College will be considered in the context of budgetary resources and having regard to competing demands.