Results 6,141-6,160 of 45,495 for speaker:Simon Harris

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Grant Payments (6 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: The information sought by the Deputy is currently being compiled by SUSI, who are the awarding authority. I have arranged for officials from my Department to forward the information directly to the Deputy's office once it is received from SUSI.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Grant Payments (6 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: The principal support provided by my Department in financial terms is the Student Grant Scheme. Under the terms of the Scheme, grant assistance is awarded to students attending an approved course in an approved institution who meet the prescribed conditions of funding, including those relating to nationality, residency, previous academic attainment and means. The scheme is demand led and as...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Grant Payments (6 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: Under the terms of the student grant scheme, grant assistance is awarded to students on full-time courses who meet the prescribed conditions of funding including those which relate to nationality, residency, approved course, previous academic attainment and means. The decision on eligibility for a student grant is a matter in the first instance for the grant awarding authority, Student...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Grant Payments (6 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: I propose to take Questions Nos. 450 and 451 together. The total level of fees charged to Graduate Entry Medicine students is a matter for the higher education institutions, consistent with the principle of their institutional autonomy. However, as I outlined in my response to PQ No 801 of 8 November, the State does provide support to institutions for Graduate Entry Medicine...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (1 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: I think there is and this is certainly an area we are looking at. We are working with the Department of Social Protection. For example, in the area of construction, the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and I have partnered with the Construction Industry Federation, CIF, to do exactly as the Deputy said in respect of identifying people who may be seeking employment and wishing to be employed and...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (1 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: I will do that and, indeed, we are doing that. Professor Tom Collins is heading a working group under the Funding the Future framework specifically looking at part-time study and eligibility and access concerning student supports. I agree with the Deputy, and I hope we can find a way forward in 2023 on the issue of SUSI. I will keep in touch with the Deputy in this regard. Turning to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (1 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: I was pleased to launch the new national access plan on 31 August 2022. This plan is genuinely the most ambitious vision we have ever set out for an inclusive and diverse higher education sector. It builds on the real and substantial progress made through the implementation of previous plans. I thank all those who worked so hard to make this a reality. It also recognises, however, that...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (1 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: The Deputy is entirely right. Issues around access and disadvantage start much earlier than when people reach the age to attend third level. This is why the national access and inclusion plan engages with other Departments, including the Departments of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Education and Social Protection to look at barriers that people can encounter earlier...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Education and Training Boards (1 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: They are not the only ones. I thank Deputies Ó Murchú and O'Dowd for raising this important issue. Without wanting to stray into the industrial relations, IR, space because of the proximity between this discussion and those discussions that will take place at the IR forum, I acknowledge on the record of the Dáil the excellent work done by personal assistants, PAs. Those are...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (1 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: I am always delighted to provide Deputy Dillon with an update but I do not have a huge amount of an update since we last met on Monday in Castlebar. That was a good day and we had the clear decision that Castlebar, County Mayo, will be the home of a new further education college of the future, which we call a FET college of the future. What that means to people in Castlebar and Mayo is that...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (1 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: The first ten locations are in the process of being announced. We are up to about five or six locations and all ten will have been announced within the next week. What then has to happen is all ten need to work intensively with SOLAS, their ETB and my Department to prepare the next phase. These are multimillion euro projects and this is a scale of investment in FET we simply have not seen...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (1 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: I am not in any way concerned about the timelines but it is important to be upfront and blunt about them, which I have been in every visit I have made to a location that has been chosen as an FET college of the future. These are multi-year projects. I cannot say whether it will be four, five or six years but that is the range of years we are talking about. People in Castlebar and Mayo will...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (1 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: I send him all our best wishes. On student accommodation, I spoke to the president of the ATU, Orla Flynn, and the chair of the governing authority, Maura McNally, on this as recently as Monday. Before I was in Castlebar I met them in Galway. It is clear as a result of the Government decision yesterday that technological universities can and should prepare to submit plans for student...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (1 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Durkan for raising this matter. One of the big things my Department is trying to do is not just to replicate the work that would have been done by the Department of Education previously but to be a Department that interacts between further and higher education and industry. We do this through the regional skills forums, which we have in every region. These involve...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Student Accommodation (1 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: I have had a number of engagements with UCD students' union. I have no issue meeting with that body. I will certainly ask the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to meet with those students also. I am sure he will have no issue doing so either. The reference to state aid rules related to the fact that private developers could say they can build accommodation too. I am...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Education and Training Boards (1 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for raising this matter with me and for raising it on one of my many visits in recent weeks to Drogheda and Dundalk, where the ETB has highlighted this as an important matter. The Deputy and I both want to create an education system that is truly inclusive and that allows everyone to reach their full potential no matter what their background is or whether they have a...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Education and Training Boards (1 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy O'Dowd. According to my note, 77 personal assistants are directly employed by the ETBs. I am open to correction on this but the note also indicates, and the information available to me suggests, that the majority of personal assistants are employed externally and not directly by ETBs. However, 77 are directly employed by ETBs. The figure for the Louth-Meath ETB in the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Disability Services (1 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: The short answer to the Deputy's final question is, "Yes". It is up to the autonomous institutions to determine their own programmes. We want to create a unified tertiary education system, however, so I would very much welcome proposals that involve further and higher education working together. As regards workforce planning, there is a level of engagement now that was not present in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Disability Services (1 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: I will keep in touch with the Deputy in respect of PA hours, I wrote to him on the matter yesterday. Deputy O'Dowd is in an awkward position.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Disability Services (1 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: I agree with the Deputy's position in respect of workforce planning. There is good work going on. I have outlined my position. In March, we will ask the higher education sector what it can do, innovatively and otherwise. This is important. We have just had a mapping exercise in respect of veterinary medicine and a number of other professions. There is now a significant level of ambition...