Results 7,481-7,500 of 45,495 for speaker:Simon Harris

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (Resumed) (5 May 2022)

Simon Harris: I thank Senator Warfield. I am in clear agreement on the need to have fact and evidence-based impartial information delivered in an age-appropriate manner in primary and secondary schools in Ireland. What you learn or do not learn about these issues cannot be the luck of the draw or down to the ethos of the school or where you live. That causes great societal difficulties. I remember...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (Resumed) (5 May 2022)

Simon Harris: Yes. My Department is getting on with it. My Department is rolling out and ramping out consent classes, training and funding. We have a national advisory group, chaired by the National Women's Council of Ireland, that advises me. We are getting on with it. I am also saying, because it would be disingenuous to say anything else to this committee, that the process must start much earlier...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (Resumed) (5 May 2022)

Simon Harris: I will be brief in the interests of time. Precarious employment is a real challenge in the third level sector. To address it we must fund the sector properly and look at the employment control framework. We have student-staff ratios in this country of approximately 20:1 and the European norm is 14:1 or 15:1. We announced €307 million in funding yesterday to plug the gap in core...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (Resumed) (5 May 2022)

Simon Harris: I do not want to use the Deputy's time but I acknowledge her own consistent advocacy of fact-based and evidence-based sex education in schools. I agree entirely on that point. I will take back the view to the wider government on how this work might be done contemporaneously rather than sequentially. There is a logic in what she says. The Minister for Education will be able to articulate...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (Resumed) (5 May 2022)

Simon Harris: I fully agree with Deputy Carroll MacNeill about the need to do more for lone parents. As I said to Deputy Clarke, we have objectively made progress but that is not to suggest the journey is complete because it is not. I believe in the reforms we intend to introduce around SUSI, the student grant system, including the removal of poverty traps - that may or not be the right phrase - whereby...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (Resumed) (5 May 2022)

Simon Harris: I thank the Senator and fully agree with what she has said about lone parents. The SUSI grant is a part of the equation but I would hate anyone to think it is the totality of how we improve access because it is not. I base my comments on what lone parents and students have told me about their experiences. There are related issues that are well outside the remit of my Department. I am...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (Resumed) (5 May 2022)

Simon Harris: Very low.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (Resumed) (5 May 2022)

Simon Harris: I very much enjoyed the engagement and I am genuinely enthused by the cross-party, non-partisan nature of trying to make progress on this. I look forward to the committee's recommendations on how we can make progress. The Chair is right that the total number of female apprentices is rising but the total population of apprentices is rising too. I do not have the percentage. I will get it...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Gender Proofing of Policies (4 May 2022)

Simon Harris: Equality budgeting is an integral part of the current budgeting framework of the Department.  It is currently applied to programmes with a particular focus on gender equality in further education, higher education leadership, apprenticeship and in research. Reporting on access provision to higher education includes the number of new entrants entering higher education with a...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education and Training Provision (4 May 2022)

Simon Harris: I propose to take Questions Nos. 344 to 350, inclusive, together. Ireland’s overall approach to skills and training is outlined in the National Skills Strategy 2016 - 2025 (NSS) which is designed to benefit all people living in Ireland. It recognises that skills policy is an area of enormous importance - informing how people in Ireland live, work, learn and thrive. The development...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education and Training Provision (4 May 2022)

Simon Harris: The Programme for Government commits the Department of Health to working with the education sectors, regulators, and professional bodies to improve the availability of health professionals and reform their training to support integrated care across the entire health service.  My Department is strongly committed to supporting the health of the population through the provision of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Research Funding (4 May 2022)

Simon Harris: “Public-public research partnerships” in this context are taken to mean partnerships which have formal Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) in place and are actively supporting research projects.  The involvement of research stakeholders including the public, patients, public policy makers, public service users in research development and implementation is crucial to...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Staff (4 May 2022)

Simon Harris: There is currently one staff member from the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science seconded to the university third level sector.  This secondment pre-dated the establishment of my Department and is on the basis of two days per week to University College Cork.  Salary costs associated with this part time, temporary secondment are recouped back...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (4 May 2022)

Simon Harris: My Department has been advised by SOLAS that the request from the Deputy with regard to the percentage and total number of both craft and consortia-led apprentices that will access off-the-job training in 2022 and the anticipated figures for 2023, is complex and has two parts for both pre and post 2016. SOLAS will require some more time to consider fully the data request. Due to the fact that...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: EU Directives (4 May 2022)

Simon Harris: The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science was established in 2020 and since that date no fines have been issued by the EU on the Department for failing to transpose EU Directives. However, there is one Directive that is yet to be transposed into Irish law; Directive 2018/958/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 June 2018 on a...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (28 Apr 2022)

Simon Harris: My Department and the Higher Education Authority (HEA) continue to work closely with Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) in relation to the infrastructure required to deliver on the ambitions of the Technological University. WIT has prepared a detailed preliminary business case, in accordance with the requirements of the Public Spending Code, to examine options for...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Costs (28 Apr 2022)

Simon Harris: The main support available to students is the statutory based Student Grant Scheme administered by SUSI. The Student Grant Scheme supports eligible postgraduate students with the cost of attending higher education. Budget 2021 provided for enhanced postgraduate supports from the 2021/22 academic year including the fee grant amount rising from €2,000 to €3,500 and the income...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Transport (28 Apr 2022)

Simon Harris: The Department of Further and Higher Education; Research; Innovation and Science currently has no electric vehicles and/or hybrid vehicles in the allocation of Ministerial vehicles. Minister Harris: Vehicle model: Audi A6, registered in 2019 Minister Collins: Vehicle Model: BMW 520 Touring estate, registered in 2018

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (28 Apr 2022)

Simon Harris: Reflecting the Irish Government’s commitment to the people of Northern Ireland, work is underway to develop a scheme to allow eligible students from higher education institutions in Northern Ireland to continue participating in Erasmus+ on the basis of temporary registration at Irish higher education institutions. It was planned to put the scheme in place from September 2022, as...