Results 541-560 of 1,025,359 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Tom Kitt OR speaker:Seán Crowe OR speaker:John Brady) in 'Committee meetings'

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Dental Services (23 May 2024)

David Stanton: I thank the Minister for his response. Will he consider visiting the Cork university dental school and hospital as soon as he can? I am alarmed to discover that funding will be invested in the old building, which has been described as frail, constrained and ill equipped. What is really needed, as I am sure the Minister will agree, is a new building. Planning permission was granted for it,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Dental Services (23 May 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: It is important to point out that UCC has received substantial government investment in recent years under a capital programme. These would have been identified by UCC. With regard to the dental school, we have to go back to 2016 when it was announced that UCC had secured a loan from the European Investment Bank, including €37 million to build a new Cork university dental school,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Dental Services (23 May 2024)

David Stanton: I acknowledge that good work and it is hugely important but the need for a dental school and hospital remains. If I heard the Minister correctly, I am alarmed that €15 million in funding will be made available to refurbish an old building. For the sake of further, relatively small, investment we could have a state-of-the-art dental school in the south, which is badly needed. I...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (23 May 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: Fostering inclusion is a core pillar of future of further education: transforming learning, the national further education and training strategy 2020-24. It identifies the needs of people with disabilities as a primary focus, acknowledging the need for more consistent support for this group. Widening participation is also a national target under the strategic performance agreements for...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (23 May 2024)

David Stanton: I thank the Minister for his support and acknowledge the good work in his Department at this level and the progress made. I have supplementary questions on this issue. Will the Minister look at the provision of changing places and toilets in third level institutions? These are toilets used by wheelchair users; they are bigger spaces. It makes a massive difference for people who are...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (23 May 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: They are practical questions. I will come back to the Deputy about them. Regarding toilets in public places, for a lot of places of learning, whether FETs, universities or ETBs, it depends on their ownership, but the building regulations apply to them. If they are public buildings, there is need to have regard to all users and all people's ability to be mobile, regardless of who they are...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (23 May 2024)

David Stanton: I thank the Minister for his positive response. Transport to college is a big issue, as is the availability of wheelchair-accessible places on buses and so on. Perhaps the Minister might take on board the suggestion of a national survey. Will the Minister comment on the view of his Department and the sector in general regarding people with autism attending third level and further...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (23 May 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: It is interesting that the Deputy has raised this issue. I had a discussion yesterday on the fact that if a child enters primary school, requires assistance and gets a special needs assistant, moves on to the second level system and has access to the same level of support and physical supports, whether sensory rooms or quiet spaces, that need does not stop when he or she transitions to third...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Nursing Education (23 May 2024)

Nursing Education

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Nursing Education (23 May 2024)

Rose Conway-Walsh: 14. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of additional places that have been added to nursing and medicine since 2020 for Irish and EU students; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23293/24]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Nursing Education (23 May 2024)

Rose Conway-Walsh: How many nursing and medicine places for Irish and EU students are currently in the system? To broaden that out, I ask the Minister a simple question - does he agree with the statement, "We do not train half enough health and social care professionals"?

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Nursing Education (23 May 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: I will answer the question regarding nursing and medicine first. Ensuring an appropriate pipeline of suitably qualified professionals in nursing and medicine is a key priority for me and my Department. I want to build on the progress made in the past few years in expanding the number of places in these disciplines. In 2020 and 2021, in response to particular circumstances relating to the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Nursing Education (23 May 2024)

Rose Conway-Walsh: The Minister provided figures but does he agree with the statement, "We do not train half enough health and social care professionals"? That is what the Minister for Health has been saying for the past couple of years. He lays the blame squarely at the feet of Fine Gael for not providing him with the workforce he needs. That is the issue - things are bounced between Fianna Fáil and...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (23 May 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: It is important to point out as well that there was a devolved grant scheme, which was administered by SOLAS but came from the Department, of just over €8 million from which the Cavan and Monaghan ETB benefited to the tune of under €500,000. It is small money in the overall context, but it is certainly an awful lot of money when you are looking for it. It is a lot of money in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Artificial Intelligence (23 May 2024)

Artificial Intelligence

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Artificial Intelligence (23 May 2024)

Richard Bruton: 8. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he has assessed the potential impact of artificial intelligence on the content of the jobs of those currently in the workforce, and the reskilling that may be necessary to ensure the capacity of workers to adapt; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23310/24]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Artificial Intelligence (23 May 2024)

Richard Bruton: As the Minister well knows, artificial intelligence will rapidly disrupt established ways of doing things as it integrates into our world. It will disrupt education and its delivery, but it will also disrupt many workplaces and create skill needs. To what extent is this now anticipated? What planning and strategies are being put in place?

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Artificial Intelligence (23 May 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: Ireland's national AI strategy, AI - Here for Good, launched in 2021, outlines how Ireland can be an international leader in the use of artificial intelligence to benefit the economy and society. The strategy is founded on three core principles, namely, adopting a human-centric approach to the application of AI, staying open and adaptable to new innovations and ensuring good governance to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Artificial Intelligence (23 May 2024)

Richard Bruton: I appreciate that there is a strategy in place but that strategy is four years old and, with the pace of this, changes occur within months. The enterprise committee, of which Deputy Stanton is also a member, heard this week that only 5% of companies are engaged in any sort of reskilling for the onset of artificial intelligence. We need an accelerated programme in areas such as Skillnet...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Artificial Intelligence (23 May 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: I do not disagree with the Deputy, particularly in the context of the European Union's European Year of Skills and the volume of skills that either cannot be met or are under threat. AI has the best of both worlds. It is something to be embraced but it is also something to which we will have to adapt in our education system, particularly in further and higher education. I do not disagree...