Results 6,121-6,140 of 6,644 for speaker:Rose Conway-Walsh

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Student Universal Support Ireland (15 Dec 2020)

Rose Conway-Walsh: 55. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide additional information on the €20 million in budget 2021 for SUSI that will see the funding returned to 2019 levels; the projections on demand upon which this is based; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43163/20]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Student Universal Support Ireland (15 Dec 2020)

Rose Conway-Walsh: I ask the Minister to provide further details on the €20 million in budget 2021 for SUSI, which will see funding return to 2019 levels, and the demand projections upon which this figure is based. I have raised this with the Minister previously at the Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. The additional funding for SUSI announced...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Student Universal Support Ireland (15 Dec 2020)

Rose Conway-Walsh: I welcome the Minister's recent announcement of a review of SUSI. I have been calling for such a review for a long time and the information we gathered in August of this year spoke to that very much. I ask the Minister to focus on the situation facing mature students who have been forced to move back home due to the current housing situation. Currently we have mature students, often...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Student Universal Support Ireland (15 Dec 2020)

Rose Conway-Walsh: I thank the Minister and assure him that I will make an input into the review. I also wish to raise the matter of the exclusion of online and part-time students. This particularly militates against students with disabilities who cannot go on campus or engage in full-time courses because of their conditions. This discrimination is totally wrong. I am concerned about those who are...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Student Universal Support Ireland (15 Dec 2020)

Rose Conway-Walsh: I ask the Minister to include young people with autism or their representatives, including his own brother, to ensure that we meet the educational needs of extremely bright young people with autism.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Costs (15 Dec 2020)

Rose Conway-Walsh: The issue is that institutions have overpromised and the Department must take some responsibility for that, as with the accommodation matter. Many of the students and parents I have spoken to feel they were misled. We cannot treat universities, institutes of technology and private colleges like primary or post-primary schools. They are marketing very expensive courses and that is what they...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Costs (15 Dec 2020)

Rose Conway-Walsh: I am sure the €250 support brought welcome relief to many students and I welcome the fact it was extended to postgraduates. We can consider the large sums involved in getting a master's degree, which can be anything from €8,000 to €18,000 per year. When the move online was announced at the end of September, students should have been offered the chance to defer or take a...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Fees (15 Dec 2020)

Rose Conway-Walsh: Could the Minister give us an assurance that students who are severely impacted by Covid, either by getting sick themselves or by related anxiety, stress or mental health issues, will not be penalised next year? Could there be a possibility for them to repeat and still be eligible for SUSI or not have to pay the fees again if they have medical evidence?

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Costs (15 Dec 2020)

Rose Conway-Walsh: 50. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the measures he has taken to urge universities to compensate postgraduate students for the move to online teaching and the much-reduced student experience promised in their prospectus and marketing campaigns; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43162/20]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Costs (15 Dec 2020)

Rose Conway-Walsh: This question relates to postgraduate courses. It is an issue I wish to raise again. We should also include the graduate-entry medical students, as they pay similarly high fees. We have seen significant and justified anger among postgraduate students because they have paid so much for a one-year course and now they are doing it from their kitchen table or from box rooms. What, if any,...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Student Support Schemes (15 Dec 2020)

Rose Conway-Walsh: 37. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if the €250 payment will be extended to include all students in full-time third level education; the way in which students in final year who have already paid their fees can avail of the support; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43160/20]

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Student Support Schemes (15 Dec 2020)

Rose Conway-Walsh: My question relates to the €250 payment to students, for which €50 million in funding was announced in the budget. Can the Minister clarify why €43.5 million, rather than €50 million, was provided in the Supplementary Estimate? Will he comment on the number of students excluded from the payment, including part-time students, students on full-time post-leaving...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Student Support Schemes (15 Dec 2020)

Rose Conway-Walsh: I welcome the Minister's response and the fact that students studying abroad and in the North will get this support, albeit, as I know the Minister understands, it is very little in terms of the high fees they have to pay. For students in their final year, is there a cut-off date by which the institutions have been asked to pay this money? How many students will be paid before Christmas?...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Student Accommodation (15 Dec 2020)

Rose Conway-Walsh: 35. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if all public institutes of higher education have now agreed to provide refunds for unused accommodation; the actions his Department has taken to help students again battling with private accommodation providers for refunds; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43159/20]

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Student Accommodation (15 Dec 2020)

Rose Conway-Walsh: I have been raising the issue of students paying for unused accommodation since the summer. Each time I have raised it, the Minister has assured me that at the very least, students with on-campus accommodation would get refunds. Will he confirm whether all universities are issuing refunds? I will come to the issue of private accommodation later. I really want to get this matter off the...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Student Accommodation (15 Dec 2020)

Rose Conway-Walsh: Yes, there are students who have done this, and my son is one of those in the accommodation in Trinity College Dublin. I am not disputing that but it is not good enough that public institutions have refused to give refunds or are giving only partial refunds. Many have tried to give the smallest refunds possible. I have received recent reports that some universities, including Dublin City...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Student Accommodation (15 Dec 2020)

Rose Conway-Walsh: As the Minister said, most students are not in on-campus accommodation, but in the private rented sector. Private student accommodation has been the preferred model for successive Governments. When I raised the issue of private accommodation in recent months, the Minister said there was not a lot he could do. I wish to commend the private accommodation providers who have issued refunds...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Functions (15 Dec 2020)

Rose Conway-Walsh: I completely understand that, but I am asking for a review of it, similar to what was done in Britain with the green book.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Functions (15 Dec 2020)

Rose Conway-Walsh: 7. To ask the Taoiseach if he will consider a review of the appraisal processes used in decision making to ensure better balanced regional development and greater transparency across the appraisal and decision-making process. [41617/20]

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Functions (15 Dec 2020)

Rose Conway-Walsh: Covid-19 and Brexit have served to bring to the forefront the need to address the stark regional imbalance and overpopulation of Dublin and our major cities. We must provide the infrastructure necessary to enable people to live and work in rural Ireland. The fact is that the criteria used for cost-benefit analyses on major projects mitigates against investment in regions. I ask the...