Results 7,201-7,220 of 46,267 for speaker:Simon Harris

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (19 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: Students and their parents and families are not in any way immune from the real pressures people are feeling in relation to the cost-of-living crisis. It is palpable. It is difficult and challenging and we really want to look at practical ways of helping. That is why we have taken immediate measures between now and the end of the year with €143.5 million of direct financial...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (19 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: Chairman, we are in the business of taking down barriers and working very closely and collaboratively with the new Technological University, with the chair of the governing authority and with the President, Professor Veronica Campbell. There is a great leadership team and governing authority now in place which really hit the ground running in their formal launch on Monday. I do not mean...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (19 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I do.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (19 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: First, I was in Marino not that long ago and it is a very fine college doing a really impressive job providing us with the teachers and educators, including in early years, for now and into the future and I am very grateful for what they do. I had a very good conversation there with the president, a very impressive individual, about her and her management team's vision for the future of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (19 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I am very happy to. I am relying on my memory on this because I do not have it in a brief in front of me but I have quite a bit of familiarity with it because I had a very good meeting recently with the delegation of veterinary education leaders from the mid-west. They came to see me in Leinster House. There is at least two higher education institutions that I am aware of and I am sure...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (19 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: The Senator has my full support on that. I think it is really important that we move on that. The working group with Professor Tom Collins is doing work on part-time students. I will talk to NCI. I will come back to the Senator on CERN. I will talk to the Department of Justice.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (19 Oct 2022)

Simon Harris: I will come back formally to the committee on where we are at with CERN and the issue of the cost-benefit analysis.

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

Simon Harris: The Deputy has rightly highlighted the work that remains to be done in reducing the cost of education. The Government that we are a part of - my party, the Deputy's and the Green Party - is the first to reduce college fees in about 27 years. It is a first step and it is not the only step we intend to take together. It has to be seen in the round. There is a reduction in the €1,000...

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

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for the question and the short answer is that it is established. It is important that when you have an announcement in the budget, you examine how you will translate that into implementation. As part of the budget, I was delighted to receive a significant cost-of-living package for third level students. Some €143 million will be spent between now and the end of...

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

Simon Harris: There has been close engagement. I want to thank the HEA, SUSI, the Irish Universities Association, IUA, the Technological Higher Education Association, THEA, and the higher education institutions themselves for their assistance. We have had engagement with all of them and it is an important point because this is not money being taken from the colleges; it is the Government providing...

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

Simon Harris: On PhD students, we will fund the IRC and the SFI for those stipends. I expect those stipend increases to be paid between now and the end of the year and I will get Deputy Colm Burke a detailed note on it. The Deputy will also be pleased to know that 4,809 students in Cork will benefit from the additional student grant payment on 16 December. As Deputy Dillon rightly says, 1,736 students...

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

Simon Harris: I agree with that and I look forward to visiting the National Maritime College of Ireland later this year with Deputy Stanton and exploring how we can work together to offer support. I thank him for keeping in touch with me regarding this subject. When we talk about the technological universities, I very much believe they are equal to but distinct from the traditional universities. This is...

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...