Results 6,301-6,320 of 19,968 for speaker:Norma Foley

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (3 Oct 2023)

Norma Foley: As the Deputy is aware, the project is being delivered under the Department’s Devolved SEN Reconfiguration and Modular Accommodation programme. This programme provides project management supports to enable the accommodation to be provided as quickly as possible and helps to ease the administrative workload for individual schools in relation to the management and delivery of the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Funding (3 Oct 2023)

Norma Foley: The Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027 was published last year and is underpinned by an investment of €200m to support its implementation, committed to under Ireland’s National Development Plan (NDP). The first tranche of €50m issued to all recognised primary and post-primary schools in late 2021. The previous Digital Strategy for Schools 2015 to 2020 saw overall...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (3 Oct 2023)

Norma Foley: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the 2022/23 school year, over 149,000 children, including over 18,000 children with special educational needs, were transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. In addition, school transport scheme services are being...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Reports (3 Oct 2023)

Norma Foley: I am committed to ensuring a quality, inclusive school systemwhere schools are a welcoming place for all children, including Traveller children. In my recent Statement of Strategy 2023–2025, I restate my vision for an education system where every child and young person feels valued and is actively supported and nurtured to reach their full potential. The central goals of the strategy...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (3 Oct 2023)

Norma Foley: I propose to take Questions Nos. 330, 331 and 332 together. The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the 2022/2023 school year, over 149,000 children, including over 18,000 children with special educational needs, were transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Defective Building Materials (3 Oct 2023)

Norma Foley: I propose to take Questions Nos. 334, 335 and 338 together. Where pyrite is suspected in a school the school can submit an Emergency Works Scheme (EWS) application for funding to have testing carried out in the first instance and where required an application can then be made to remediate the matter. Problems with Pyrite has been identified in six schools that were built since 1994, one of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (3 Oct 2023)

Norma Foley: I propose to take Questions Nos. 336 and 337 together. Under the terms of the contract, the Contractor has a period of 12 months after the date of substantial completion to rectify any snags or defects that are identified (i.e. Defects Liability Period). If at the end of the 12 month period all snags or defects have not been rectified, then the Contract offers other remedies to have matters...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (3 Oct 2023)

Norma Foley: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the 2022/2023 school year, over 149,000 children, including over 18,000 children with special educational needs, were transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. In addition, school transport scheme services were provided...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Policies (3 Oct 2023)

Norma Foley: My Department and its officials do not presently use ChatGPT or any other form of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to generate official text or to manage any Departmental functions. No such software is installed on my official's devices. My Department will continue to monitor developments in relation to AI, in particular with regard to potential applications that may be identified by other...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (3 Oct 2023)

Norma Foley: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the 2022/2023 school year, over 149,000 children, including over 18,000 children with special educational needs, were transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. In addition, school transport scheme services were provided...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (28 Sep 2023)

Norma Foley: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the 2022/2023 school year, over 149,000 children, including over 18,000 children with special educational needs, were transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. In addition, school transport scheme services were provided...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Admissions (28 Sep 2023)

Norma Foley: As the Deputy may be aware,for school planning purposes, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas and uses a Geographical Information System (or GIS) to anticipate school place demand. Information from a range of sources, including Child Benefit Data, school enrolment data and information on residential development activity is used for this purpose. Additionally,...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Textbooks (28 Sep 2023)

Norma Foley: Earlier this year, I announced a landmark new scheme which saw the government investing over €50 million to providing free schoolbooks, workbooks and copybooks for pupils. More than 558,000 pupils enrolled in approximately 3,230 primary schools, including over 130 special schools, will benefit from the new scheme this year. Detailed guidance for primary schools on the scheme was...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Textbooks (28 Sep 2023)

Norma Foley: My Department provides a book grant to all recognised post primary schools within the Free Education Scheme in order to provide assistance for books including Book Rental Schemes. Under this scheme, my Department provided funding of €4 million to DEIS post primary schools and €6.6 million to non-DEIS post primary schools in 2023.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (28 Sep 2023)

Norma Foley: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the 2022/2023 school year, over 149,000 children, including over 18,000 children with special educational needs, were transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. In addition, school transport scheme services were provided...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Inquiries (28 Sep 2023)

Norma Foley: The Scoping Inquiry established on March 7th 2023 is independently led. As such, queries relating to any material that the Scoping Inquiry team has issued to those participating in its processes should be sent directly to the team, and I am sure that they will be happy to respond. The Terms of Reference for the Scoping Inquiry set out the matters that it is asked to consider. As the work...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Admissions (28 Sep 2023)

Norma Foley: While the Department is aware of increasing pressures and demand for additional school places in the Clontarf, Killester and Raheny area, it is important to note that where enrolment pressures arise, it may not be as a result of lack of accommodation but may be driven by the following factors:Duplication of applications – pupils have applied for a place to a number of schools in the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Facilities (28 Sep 2023)

Norma Foley: My Department has provided significant capital investment to reconfigure a former school building to facilitate the establishment of the school in question. This high quality accommodation includes 8 classrooms and ancillary provision including Quiet Spaces, a multi-purpose sensory room and external play areas. The specialist external soft play area includes specific equipmentfor the pupils...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (28 Sep 2023)

Norma Foley: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the 2022/2023 school year, over 149,000 children, including over 18,000 children with special educational needs, were transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. In addition, school transport scheme services were...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Admissions (28 Sep 2023)

Norma Foley: As the Deputy will be aware, for school planning purposes, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas and utilises a Geographical Information System to anticipate school place demand. Information from a range of sources, including Child Benefit data, school enrolment data and information on residential development activity is used for this purpose. Additionally, Project...