Results 6,161-6,180 of 45,495 for speaker:Simon Harris

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

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. It has been a significant week in terms of changing the Government's policy on student accommodation. This week, I went to Government with a proposal that, for the first time, the State will use taxpayers' money to help to build publicly owned college accommodation. I have stated in the House previously that we have been too reliant on the private...

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

Simon Harris: There are two parts to this, as the Deputy may have heard me say earlier. There is a supply issue. To take Maynooth University as an example, based on the figures I have in my head, for every one student who got a student accommodation bed on campus, there were six others who sought one. There was a demand this year for student accommodation, at current rates, that could not be met. We...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Research Funding (1 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for the question. He is aware of the short-term benefits, introduced in the budget in terms of one-off payments or increases to the stipend baseline, so I will not waste time on that. I accept we need to do more. We need to retain talent in Ireland and we need to attract talent to Ireland. I have engaged with many PhD students and postgraduate students, and as recently...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Research Funding (1 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: The status issue that the Deputy has outlined will be considered. It is an explicit term of the terms of reference. What I would also flag to the Deputy, as I flagged earlier, is that in this House we will have an opportunity in 2023 to pass a research Bill. The Government has committed to bringing forward a stand-alone national research Bill in 2023. This will be the Bill to give effect...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Research Funding (1 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: I always welcome others working with me. This legislation will have to go through pre-legislative scrutiny. It is the Government’s intention to publish legislation early in 2023 and then, to be truthful, we will be in the hands of the joint committee in terms of pre-legislative scrutiny. That pre-legislative scrutiny will be very important. Ministers often ask for it to be waived...

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

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for raising this question and we had some engagement on it previously. When I look at the whole area of health and social care, there are 26 professions that I have come across so far in terms of the breadth of courses and professions that need to be addressed. We have to ensure there is an appropriate pipeline of suitably qualified professionals in disciplines required...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Technological Universities (1 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: Not that it is needed, but I offer my encouragement to the Deputy in continuing his work. There is a major vehicle for the west and the north west in the form of the ATU. There is a brilliant leadership team place, including the president, Dr. Orla Flynn, and the chair of the governing authority, Maura McNally. I was in that beautiful library on Monday last. To use the hotel as an...

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

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Ó Cathasaigh for the question. We initially discussed this at the Committee on Autism and I thank him for following it up further. In June, I announced €12 million in funding for a new four-year strand of PATH funding. This is funding that is directed as under-represented groups in higher education. This is known as PATH 4. Phase 1 supports the embedding of...

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

Simon Harris: I should have said that we have brought in the National Disability Authority, NDA, to evaluate these projects. I wish to thank it for doing so. The Higher Education Authority, HEA, and the NDA are evaluating these projects. Before I launched the call for funding, I met with representatives from the NDA to discuss this matter. I also met them briefly again at a conference I attended...

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

Simon Harris: I agree with Deputy Ó Murchú. That is a very good summary of what we are trying to do. As Deputy Ó Cathasaigh said, having the evaluation is key to this. As we discussed in some detail at the Joint Committee on Autism, the cliff edge has moved for far too many students from getting from primary to secondary school or from getting from secondary school to third level. That...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Apprenticeship Programmes (1 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: The answers the Deputy gets are not changing. There was more than 11,000 people waiting at the peak in August 2021. We engaged very intensively with SOLAS to find out how long somebody would generally wait, forgetting Covid-19. If Covid-19 had never happened, the normal time somebody would generally wait between one phase and the other is six months. That is the standard time people wait...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Apprenticeship Programmes (1 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: I agree with the last point but the Deputy knows when quoting those figures that obviously Covid-19 had an impact on the pace at which people were able to fully qualify as an apprentice. I do not think that is news; that is a reality of the Covid-19 pandemic when our training centres had to shut down for sustained periods of time to keep people safe. The more important figure is that more...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Technological Universities (1 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: Objectively, this was a really great week for education in Galway. We saw approximately €100 million announced in projects for further education and higher education in the city and county of Galway. We saw a multi-million euro development in the Deputy's own bailiwick where I know he lectured, in the Atlantic Technological University - some €19 million from memory - that will...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Technological Universities (1 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: I agree with the Deputy's sentiments. I am aware this bundle has been on the run for a while and I hear his frustration on that point. I want to assure him and his constituents, and the staff and students in ATU Galway in particular, that things have not been standing still. There is a very live process underway in relation to bundle 2 which includes this STEM project for Galway. I have...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Third Level Education (1 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: This is a root-and-branch review. It is not simply looking at what the level of the stipend should be; it is looking at all the issues, including how a PhD researcher is classified and whether they are students or employees. I have had engagement with postgraduates. There are some countries people reference as good examples of how PhD researchers are looked after where they are employees...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Third Level Education (1 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: I do not think that is right.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Third Level Education (1 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: We can certainly agree that retaining and recruiting the best talent into our country is key. It is key to our future economic and social well-being. That is why in Impact 2030, Ireland's national research and innovation strategy, we quite rightly place a real focus on the researchers themselves. This review stems from that and from listening directly to researchers and postgraduate...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Apprenticeship Programmes (1 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for highlighting this important issue. By any objective measure, there has been an unprecedented level of focus on apprenticeships by my Department since its creation. In fact, I would argue that one of the big benefits of the establishment of my Department two and a half years ago was a policy focus on the area of apprenticeship, whether through the apprenticeship action...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Student Accommodation (1 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Conway-Walsh for the question. She is correct; the Government decision this week allocated an additional €32 million to HEIs for the provision of, as she said, 667 additional units. As the Deputy probably knows, they are in Maynooth, Galway and Limerick. I can come back on some of those details in a moment. My Department has been engaged intensively in examining...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Student Accommodation (1 Dec 2022)

Simon Harris: I welcome the Deputy's welcome. I think there was political consensus in the House the State should intervene in providing funding to build college-owned student accommodation. We might have differing views but there was a general consensus across the House that needed to happen and it is now happening. If it does not sound too peculiar to say, I contend it is wrong to focus on the 667....