Results 6,461-6,480 of 45,495 for speaker:Simon Harris

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

Simon Harris: The people of the south east can believe us because we are delivering. The Deputy can decide whether or not to get on board with that but we are delivering. There is a technological university in the south east. Job done. The staff and the students voted for it. Veronica Campbell, the former bursar of Trinity College Dublin, is the president, and Paddy Prendergast, the former provost of...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Third Level Costs (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I accept that there is always a need to do more, but the idea that the Deputy suggests, or would suggest on behalf of anybody else, that nothing was done in the budget to assist students, is manifestly untrue. Some €143 million has been allocated for cost-of-living measures for students between now and the end of the year, which is not nothing. About 95,000 students will benefit from...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Third Level Costs (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: We also have record numbers of students in third level education. There are more than there have ever been in the history of the State and that has to be acknowledged. There are more students than ever before in the history of the leaving certificate getting their first choice of college course. New technological universities are opening in the regions. There are pathways between further...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Third Level Costs (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: Objectively, we are removing barriers. I am the first Minister with responsibility for higher education who has been able to stand here in 27 years and talk about fees coming down. That is what the budget did. We can have a legitimate debate about the pace of reduction and whether we can move faster, but let us not escape the context, which is that we have just delivered a budget which has...

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

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Conway-Walsh for this question. The 2022 Revised Estimates provided for expenditure, as the Deputy said, of €765 million from the National Training Fund. While these amounts have been allocated to the various beneficiaries, the final actual expenditure for 2022 is not known as yet because we have not reached year end. The final allocation for the NTF in 2023 will be...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Tax Reliefs (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Conway-Walsh for the important and timely question. When the question was submitted and we were preparing our answer it was in advance of the Finance Bill being published. The Bill will be published later this week but the Minster for Finance has indicated today, as have I, that parents who pay rent for their children will now be covered by the rent relief. Let us look at...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Tax Reliefs (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I can only tell the Deputy those who are included because I am trying to think of various scenarios here. However, I am satisfied that the way the Finance Bill is now drafted will provide access to the rent relief tax credit for students in the four categories I outlined, namely, those living in on-campus accommodation, those renting themselves, those in the rent-a-room scheme and those...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Tax Reliefs (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I have a couple of bits and, as the Deputy suggested, we will be able to come back to some of this in later questions. The first thing is we need to do a full, proper, external review of PhD supports. I expect to be in a position to announce the details of that this week. We need to look at it root and branch, at all the elements of support, at what other countries do, at what we do well...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: The HEA has reported a total of 10,013 full time PhD students in 2021/2022. The most recent Higher Education Expenditure on Research and Development (HERD) Survey 2018/19 carried out by my Department, found that there were 10,044 research students (doctoral and masters by research) in 2018, of which 6,143 (61%) were in receipt of a stipend and 3,901 (39%) were fully self-funded. The...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Grant Payments (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I was very pleased to be in a position to provide an additional maintenance payment to SUSI maintenance grant holders through the cost-of-living measures. I can confirm that this additional maintenance grant payment will be paid on the 16th December to eligible students. As part of Budget 2023, I have also increased the Maintenance Grant rates by 14% for those on the Special and Band 1 rate...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Grant Payments (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I have been consistent in my position that we need to develop our student support system over time to ensure that it supports more flexible forms of learning. At present, the student grant scheme is targeted at full-time students in approved institutions. Courses that are part-time, less than two years in duration or leading to a special purpose or minor award, rather than a major award,...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: My Department is strongly committed to supporting the health of the population through the provision of graduates with the key competencies and skills to be effective in the health workforce and support a range of clinical teams in our health services. In July, the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly TD, and I jointly announced an additional 60 places in medicine programmes for this...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Grant Payments (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I am pleased that as part of the Government's cost of living measures, every SUSI maintenance grant recipient will receive an additional once-off extra maintenance payment. This includes PLC students, undergraduate students and Postgraduate Students who are in receipt of the Special Rateof Grant. Students will receive an additional payment equivalent to one monthly maintenance grant payment....

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Healthcare Policy (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I am committed to ensuring that we develop an appropriate pipeline of qualified healthcare workers and vets within Ireland. This must of course be within the overall context of strategic workforce plans for the sectors concerned, the development of which are led by the relevant Departments. Health and social care, and veterinary programmes, are by their nature complex in delivery. In...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: The Deputy will be aware it was agreed that the Cavan Institute project, which was previously part of the Department of Education school building programme, would be advanced as part of the new Further Education and Training (FET) capital funding programme under my Department. We remain committed to advancing this project, subject to compliance with Public Spending Code requirements. I...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Technological Universities (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I am strongly committed to the development of a high-quality multi-campus environment for the South East Technological University - SETU - including in Waterford. Since 2013, over €90 million has been made available under the Higher Education Landscape and Transformation Funds, for the development of technological universities. This includes funding of €14.3 million for the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Accommodation (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: Government is acutely aware of the issues being faced by students trying to source affordable accommodation. It must be recognised, however, that fundamentally, the challenge is one of supply of housing more generally. That is why Government launched Housing for All, led by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The plan is backed by the largest housing budget in the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Unions (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: Both I and my officials meet regularly with unions that represent students when I visit campuses across Ireland, through formal bilateral meetings and also as part of Departmental structures including the Funding the Future steering group. At these meetings we discuss many issues including how the cost of living and the cost of education is impacting on students and their families. These...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: As the Deputy may be aware, up to now, there has been a long-standing legislative impediment to farming apprenticeships. This reflected the fact that under the Industrial Training Act, 1967, the development of apprenticeship programmes in “an activity of agriculture, horticulture or fishing which is an activity of primary production, or any activity of a professional...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (18 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: Apprentices are primarily employees and all of the 66 available apprenticeships are undertaken under a contract of employment. For the majority of apprenticeships, the rate of pay is agreed between the apprentice and the employer with the employer paying the apprentice during both on-the-job and off-the-job training elements of the apprenticeship. For the 25 craft apprenticeship programmes,...