Results 6,441-6,460 of 45,495 for speaker:Simon Harris

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Technological Universities (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: This should not be the case. I will look into this issue and revert to the Deputy with the figures. We have topped up, for want of a better phrase, the student assistance fund in recent weeks with the €8 million announced. I will respond directly to her regarding this matter. Turning to Deputy Stanton's contribution, I am eager that the technological universities collaborate...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Fees (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Aindrias Moynihan for raising this issue. To be honest about this issue, and it is important to be so, the Government's decision in the budget we announced links the €1,000 reduction to the €3,000 fee. The way I explain this in my own mind, therefore, is that if people are eligible to pay the €3,000 fee, they are then eligible to get the €1,000...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Fees (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: Truthfully, I do not have the information here. If I do, I cannot come across it now but I will get it for the Deputy. He has made a fair point. I agree with his analysis that there are many students attending a whole variety of institutions that are not publicly funded but who may need assistance. This could be in terms of the cost-of-living crisis or in respect of other issues that can...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Technological Universities (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I agree that the technological universities have the potential to enhance progress in the delivery of national and regional priorities significantly, bringing higher education into the regions while creating institutions that are mandated by law to interact with local business and local industry on the development of courses. They also place an emphasis on matters like inclusion, access and...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: It is important to note that my Department allocates recurrent funding to the HEA for direct disbursement to HEA-designated higher education institutions. However, as autonomous bodies, the internal disbursement of this funding is a matter for the individual institution. As is clear from the actions already taken in the cost-of-living measures outlined in the budget, my Department is...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I do not want to pre-empt the review but my instinctive view is in line with the Deputy’s in terms of this idea of a recommended minimum stipend. That is something that would be quite helpful because the more one looks into this issue, the more one realises there are so many different and diverse ways in which stipends are funded. There are the ones directly funded through my own...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: This is an important issue for the well-being of our students, the next generation of leaders and some of our best and brightest. It is also an important issue from the point of view of the competitiveness of our country, a knowledge-based economy. I want to look at the stipend but, in any review, I want to look at more than the stipend, as the Deputy is suggesting. I think there are...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Fees (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I find myself fundamentally in agreement with the Deputy. To be blunt and honest here, we had to start somewhere and we started at the €3,000 fee. Any student linked to the €3,000 undergraduate fee benefits from the €1,000 reduction. Do we want to do more? Yes. Do we need to do more in respect of part-time students? We absolutely do for the reasons the Deputy has...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Fees (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: Yes, I can, and it will be replaced in 2023. The first priority, and it has to be my first one, is to get building student accommodation. There are a number of sites and universities that have planning permission and land today and I need to get those projects built. It has not been possible to build them, and I do not mean to say this in a critical way of them, for whatever one may want...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Children in Care (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for his question; it is one of the most important with which we will deal this evening and I will genuinely work with him on this issue. We have had a number of meetings with Empowering People In Care, EPIC. Marissa Ryan, its CEO, is doing great work and Rory Brown, a member of its youth council, recently spoke at the launch of the new national access plan. Before I get...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Children in Care (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I appreciate and acknowledge the passion. It is a serious issue and we will look into it. As the Deputy implied, it is not directly within the remit of my Department. The benefit of the national access plan, however, is that it involves other Departments on the implementation group. The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, the Department of Health, the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Children in Care (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I do not want to stray too far outside my remit as I do not have responsibility for that matter but I will be engaging with relevant Departments and Government colleagues on these issues. If we are serious about fixing access to further and higher education for people who have had experience of the care system - and we are - that will be interdependent on several other things happening...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Fees (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for raising this matter on behalf of her constituent. As she is aware, as part of the budget 2023 we have secured a significant cost-of-living package for third level students, including a once-off €1,000 state financial support towards the undergraduate student contribution fee for higher education students eligible for the free fees scheme. This measure will...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Technological Universities (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: It used to be that the Deputy did not believe that I was going to deliver the university. Now we have delivered the university and he does not believe that I will properly fund it. I will fund it.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Technological Universities (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: No, it is not just a structure.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Technological Universities (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I ask the Deputy for a little degree of positivity. For the first time in the history of Waterford, people in Waterford city can get a university degree. People in Waterford county and in the south east, the Industrial Development Authority, IDA, Enterprise Ireland and even Sinn Féin, with respect to it, believe in it. The Opposition and the Government have come together on this....

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Technological Universities (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: The university and business people believe it. We will not negotiate the commercial amounts on the floor of the Dáil. However, we will get on and do it. Many people told me that this Government will never deliver a university, but we have. Now those same people want to say we will not expand the footprint; we are.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Expenditure (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I fundamentally agree with Deputy Conway-Walsh. I ran out of time on my last answer but I fundamentally agree with the Deputy in regard to the size of the surplus. It is prudent to have a level of surplus. We would agree on that. It is imprudent to have such a large surplus. I agree on that too. The challenge for the Government, and I respectfully suggest it is also a challenge for the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Expenditure (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: We have to get this right. My colleague, the Tánaiste, indicated most recently in his speech at the IBEC annual dinner his wish, my wish and the Government’s wish to be able to use this fund, an element of the surplus of this fund, to provide an additionality when it comes to skills provision in Ireland. As I have said, on my invitation the OECD is currently conducting a review...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Technological Universities (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I appreciate the concise way in which the Deputy delivered a very lengthy written question. I thank Deputy Shanahan for raising the question and for his ongoing engagement with me in regard to SETU, and particularly in regard to Waterford city and county. I look forward to visiting on Monday and engaging further with the Deputy there. The multi-campus South East Technological...