Results 61-80 of 185 for speaker:Gareth Scahill

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Youth: Recruitment and Retention of Special Needs Assistants: Discussion (24 Sep 2025)

Gareth Scahill: I thank our guests for their contributions this morning. We have had discussions about the 72-hour obligation and how some of the work is unrelated, trivial and demeaning. Only yesterday in the Seanad I raised the issue of school dinners for a lot of small schools. They have been told by providers that they cannot be provided with hot meals any more because their numbers were below the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Youth: Recruitment and Retention of Special Needs Assistants: Discussion (24 Sep 2025)

Gareth Scahill: I am sorry to interrupt. Were qualifications, redeployment, CPD and defining the role itself Fórsa's main contribution to the review?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Youth: Recruitment and Retention of Special Needs Assistants: Discussion (24 Sep 2025)

Gareth Scahill: On what Ms Cockerill said, we have obviously seen an increase in the number of SNAs throughout the sector. Is that number still adequate? What scale of expansion does she envision as necessary?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Youth: Recruitment and Retention of Special Needs Assistants: Discussion (24 Sep 2025)

Gareth Scahill: Ms Cockerill said we need more SNAs. Our figures show us that the majority of SNAs already have QQI level 6 qualifications. If the standard or requirement is brought up to that, will it affect the supply of SNAs? How do the witnesses see that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Youth: Recruitment and Retention of Special Needs Assistants: Discussion (24 Sep 2025)

Gareth Scahill: Why can they not get the jobs?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Youth: Recruitment and Retention of Special Needs Assistants: Discussion (24 Sep 2025)

Gareth Scahill: I thank the witnesses for attending and for giving their presentations this morning. I was going to follow up on something that Fórsa mentioned this morning about the workforce development plan, but the witnesses have already gone through the pillars on that. I am not going to get into the issue of individual schools, but if we in the Oireachtas send messages and queries to ncse.ie,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Youth: Recruitment and Retention of Special Needs Assistants: Discussion (24 Sep 2025)

Gareth Scahill: So is that two weeks or three weeks?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Youth: Recruitment and Retention of Special Needs Assistants: Discussion (24 Sep 2025)

Gareth Scahill: If we do not get it in that timeline, who do we contact?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Youth: Recruitment and Retention of Special Needs Assistants: Discussion (24 Sep 2025)

Gareth Scahill: Regarding the SNA review process, I have been contacted by a number of principals in a number of schools, and certain things I can figure out and I understand the logic about it, but one of the concerns is the unification and redeployment risk. One school principal stated: SNA allocations are now unified across mainstream and special classes, and this removes the protection autism class...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Youth: Recruitment and Retention of Special Needs Assistants: Discussion (24 Sep 2025)

Gareth Scahill: Would it possible -----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Youth: Recruitment and Retention of Special Needs Assistants: Discussion (24 Sep 2025)

Gareth Scahill: No, I am just saying -----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Youth: Recruitment and Retention of Special Needs Assistants: Discussion (24 Sep 2025)

Gareth Scahill: Ms Walsh can respond in writing. That is all.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (23 Sep 2025)

Gareth Scahill: I join everyone else in welcoming Martin Hughes to his new role. I also pay tribute to Martin Groves and Bridget Doody for their work in their former roles. When talking about two people who have always gone above and beyond in their roles, it is worth mentioning the staff working in our schools. A lot have come back in difficult times, experiencing issues with bus transport and school...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Artificial Intelligence: Artificial Intelligence and Children and Young People: Discussion (23 Sep 2025)

Gareth Scahill: We let Ms Blackwell go at it when she had the chance. First and foremost, I thank our witnesses for being here. It was very refreshing to hear from Grace, Fionn, Mr. Murray and all of the other speakers. We wanted to have their organisations in here this morning so that we can learn from them and hear their feedback on this. Fionn mentioned a number of issues, including protection,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Artificial Intelligence: Artificial Intelligence and Children and Young People: Discussion (23 Sep 2025)

Gareth Scahill: I thank Fionn for that. After the week that we have had, seeing data leaks and how data has been sold as well, how can young people be better informed on how their data is being used? That is quite important. I do not mind if Grace wants to come in on this one.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Artificial Intelligence: Artificial Intelligence and Children and Young People: Discussion (23 Sep 2025)

Gareth Scahill: Thank you. Jumping over to Mr. Murray now, he mentioned that one in three young people is turning to AI companions for relationships at present. How should Ireland regulate or provide a safeguard for this emerging trend without stigmatising young people and making it an issue that they are worried about?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Artificial Intelligence: Artificial Intelligence and Children and Young People: Discussion (23 Sep 2025)

Gareth Scahill: Grace welcomed the AI office. Ms Lynch spoke about parents' concerns in the survey, over-reliance on AI and the negative effects. Mr. Murray even mentioned the environmental impact of AI. How do they think their organisations can be more involved with the AI office and the decisions it makes?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Artificial Intelligence: Artificial Intelligence and Children and Young People: Discussion (23 Sep 2025)

Gareth Scahill: I reiterate my thanks to all the speakers. Both the earlier session and this one have been very informative. The big thing I am getting from every representative body is education. That needs to form a part of everything we put into any report on this. I am not going back to Ms Daly specifically but, rather, to her organisation. On deepfakes, during the summer I was at a presentation...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Artificial Intelligence: Artificial Intelligence and Children and Young People: Discussion (23 Sep 2025)

Gareth Scahill: Mr. Church and Ms Keane also mentioned cyberbullying, stealing of images, blackmail and extortion. Earlier, Reuban Murray spoke about how one in three young people are now turning to AI companions. It was nice to hear Ms Keane emphasise empathy, creativity and judgment. These tools in their arsenal are too valuable to take out of human hands. That is going into a very worrying area in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Artificial Intelligence: Artificial Intelligence and Children and Young People: Discussion (23 Sep 2025)

Gareth Scahill: This is for Spunout, sorry.