Results 7,501-7,520 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Other Questions: School Patronage (4 Jul 2018)

Richard Bruton: As I am sure the Deputy has, I visit a number of community national schools which are based on the model the ETBs run. They are exemplary models. While they welcome children of the Catholic faith, they give an equal welcome for children of any other faith or of none. Every student is recognised and that diversity is valued. It becomes a feature and a strength of the school that such...

Other Questions: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (4 Jul 2018)

Richard Bruton: As the question I have does not refer specifically to Castleblaney, I hope the answer is along the right lines. The reply refers to the demonstration project that was recently announced to provide an in-school and preschool therapy service, to be introduced for the 2018-19 school year. The project will be managed and co-ordinated by the National Council for Special Education. The model has...

Other Questions: Schools Building Projects Status (4 Jul 2018)

Richard Bruton: I understand the Deputy's concern. While there were some delays and unforeseen ground conditions, from the point of view of the design team the maximum delay should be six to eight weeks behind schedule and not the revised timeline. The local authority will be aware of the protections it has in the contract to ensure compliance and penalties in the event of failure. It is very clear the...

Other Questions: Schools Building Projects Status (4 Jul 2018)

Richard Bruton: I acknowledge what the Deputy has said. The Department has a diversified portfolio of approaches to building schools. We use the NDFA, the ETBs, the local authorities and public private partnerships. We have devolved design teams and the rapid delivery programme. We have a mixture. None of them is absolutely perfect. We have had difficulties of this nature in all of those streams. The...

Other Questions: State Examinations (4 Jul 2018)

Richard Bruton: I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I see the motivation behind it. The State Examinations Commission has statutory responsibility for operational matters relating to the certificate examinations. I am informed by the commission that it regularly receives requests for assistance from candidates who either cannot take an examination or cannot perform to their optimum as a result of...

Other Questions: State Examinations (4 Jul 2018)

Richard Bruton: I understand what the Deputy is saying but the State Examinations Commission has looked at how it can be flexible by giving rest breaks throughout the period of the exams and going to different venues and so on but it has confined it to the day the exam takes place. It is caught because of the CAO timeframe which is very definite. What is different from a higher education situation is that...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Education Policy (4 Jul 2018)

Richard Bruton: The Action Plan for Education outlines a series of actions to be taken to make the Irish education and training service the best in Europe. Since May 2016, we have cut the pupil teacher ratio at primary level twice, provided for 3,000 special needs assistants and more than 5,000 new teaching posts, with an additional 1,280 posts for the coming school year as a result of budget 2018. We...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Education Policy (4 Jul 2018)

Richard Bruton: There are many questions there. On class sizes, from 2018 we will have the lowest class sizes in primary schools ever in the history of the State. It is a significant first and it was welcomed across the House. In prioritising resources, we have to look at where the boot is pinching most. This year, there was €550 million to be allocated right across the education sector and half...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Education Policy (4 Jul 2018)

Richard Bruton: As I said to Deputy Thomas Byrne, I did increase the release time to teaching principals. Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan mentioned the onslaught of curricular change but many others would say that we are reforming a curricular system that was not serving pupils as well as it should. Much work has gone into improving the reading programme at primary level and we are seeing the impact. Our ten...

Other Questions: Schools Building Projects Status (4 Jul 2018)

Richard Bruton: I did indeed visit the site and I can understand the Deputy's frustration. This project in Curraghmore is being delivered on my Department's behalf by the school’s local authority. The local authority recently notified officials that the project is six to eight weeks behind schedule and that a recent works programme provided by the contractor indicated a...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Student Accommodation (4 Jul 2018)

Richard Bruton: The current provision of purpose-built student accommodation exceeds the target set in the plan published shortly after the housing plan. We are meeting and exceeding the targets. The application of the rent control regime to the student accommodation sector is a little more difficult than the Deputy suggests in that rent arrangements in student accommodation are by way of a licence, not a...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Student Accommodation (4 Jul 2018)

Richard Bruton: I accept the Deputy's point that we need to look at introducing a scheme of a similar nature, but the nature of the student market is different. We have all learned about the law of unintended consequences. It is important that we allow the work being done between the two Departments to continue rather than try to cobble together something that would not work. There is a degree of focus on...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Schools Property (4 Jul 2018)

Richard Bruton: On the school property to which the Deputy refers, the school patron has informed my Department that the school currently operating at this property will close on 30 June 2019, when the last group of pupils will have completed sixth class. The school patron has been working with the four Catholic schools under its patronage in Ballyfermot in regard to reorganising these schools. I...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Schools Property (4 Jul 2018)

Richard Bruton: The Deputy asked if the Department envisages a need for an additional school in the area. I am told that while there is some house-building taking place in the area and an increase in enrolments is expected, there is significant capacity in a number of the existing primary schools in the area. The outcome of the demographic exercises indicate a surplus of available accommodation over the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Schools Property (4 Jul 2018)

Richard Bruton: The Department has never acquired new buildings where it already has existing capacity. The Department's demographic process, which is based on the very best information available from local authorities, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, the census and so on, is applied evenly and equitably to all areas. Where it is identified that a new school is required, these...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: School Curriculum (4 Jul 2018)

Richard Bruton: I thank the Deputy for the question. The framework for the junior cycle presents a dual approach to assessment and it supports student learning over the three years of the cycle. It measures achievement at the end of those three years. This dual approach reduces the focus on one externally assessed examination as a means of assessing students and increases the prominence given to...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: School Curriculum (4 Jul 2018)

Richard Bruton: Music is offered in just short of 600 post-primary schools out of a total of 711. Therefore, the vast majority offer it. When the National Council for Curriculum Assessment developed the curriculum, the question of students studying the subject on an external basis was discussed but it was agreed, through the development process and subsequent consultation, that the specification and its...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: School Curriculum (4 Jul 2018)

Richard Bruton: The Deputy probably answered her question. The philosophy is that education is integral and that a school should not have music or another subject as a specialism that is outsourced. The thinking is to have a whole-school approach whereby a child, particularly in the junior cycle, can have a range of experiences delivered in an integrated way and develop his or her own personality....

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Student Accommodation (4 Jul 2018)

Richard Bruton: I believed the Minister of State was to answer this question. The position on student accommodation is that we have developed a programme for the construction of purpose-built units. There is a pipeline of 7,000 student places in construction. Since the programme was started, 2,500 additional places have come on stream. The expectation is that we will match that figure in the coming...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: School Staff (4 Jul 2018)

Richard Bruton: I have discussed with teaching principals a range of their concerns and have had more formal engagement with the relevant stakeholders, including the IPPN and the INTO. I have also been in correspondence with the forum for teaching principals in primary schools on the issue. The education system has certain characteristics, particularly the relatively large number of small schools, which...