Results 8,101-8,120 of 45,495 for speaker:Simon Harris

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (8 Feb 2022)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Smith for the question. The national development plan commits to a step up in investment in further education and training infrastructure. As the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, outlined, under plans being developed by my Department it is projected that expenditure will increase from less than €20 million in capital funding for further education and training in 2020...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Costs (8 Feb 2022)

Simon Harris: I ran out of time when referring to student accommodation. The Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins, and I, along with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, are working intensively to make sure that our technological universities can borrow for the very first time and start to build student accommodation. In Deputy Stanton's part of the world,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Costs (8 Feb 2022)

Simon Harris: Absolutely. I had started to answer the question, and I believe I have to conclude on it. I acknowledge the work the Minister of State is leading in this area. We are now trying to make sure that the range of supports available in higher education begin to transition in an appropriate way that works for further education and for community education. I will give a couple of quick examples....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Nursing Education (8 Feb 2022)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Aindrias Moynihan for this important and timely question. The Government has increased the number of places in higher education by approximately 6,000 over the past two years. Obviously, that is a global figure. I would also make the point, which might be somewhat reassuring or informative to leaving certificate students this year, that, as of the CAO deadline last week, the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Nursing Education (8 Feb 2022)

Simon Harris: With regard to Macroom and Mallow and those courses specifically, I will check with SOLAS and Department regarding the capacity to do more this year. Generally, when it comes to further education and training we tend to be in the space of being demand led, and where there is a local demand we try to provide those additional places at the further education and training levels. I will revert...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Nursing Education (8 Feb 2022)

Simon Harris: Those extra places were over and above. While they may not have been ring-fenced for people in further education and training, they certainly did not take away from any existing places. I want to make the point that these were newly created places amounting to 335 additional nursing and midwifery places over 2020 and 2021. That figure will grow further. I cannot give the Deputy a...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Fees (8 Feb 2022)

Simon Harris: My maths skills are not great but we charge €3,000, which I see as too high. In the North, where Sinn Féin is in government, it is charging €5,434. Shame on the party.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Fees (8 Feb 2022)

Simon Harris: Shame.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Fees (8 Feb 2022)

Simon Harris: It should listen to the students and reduce those fees in the North. Do something about the A levels as well.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Fees (8 Feb 2022)

Simon Harris: With the Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins, we will reduce the fees over time for students. We will ensure a sustainable funding model and we will put more into SUSI. We will work on an all-island basis to look after all the young people.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Admissions (8 Feb 2022)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for this important and timely question. My Department is strongly committed to supporting the health of our population through the provision of graduates with the key competencies and skills to be effective in the health workforce and to support a range of clinical teams in our health services. I am pleased that in the two years this Department has existed, in both 2020...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Admissions (8 Feb 2022)

Simon Harris: The Deputy is entirely right. Since giving my initial response, I found the figure in question from 2020. There were 135 additional places in 2020 and approximately 200 additional places in 2021. It is an increase of approximately 335 nursing and midwifery places over the past year. The Deputy is on to something and he is entirely correct. All of us, including me, regularly tell...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Admissions (8 Feb 2022)

Simon Harris: While I always feel obligated to say the universities are autonomous, I do not wish to sound that I intend in any way, shape or form to be a bystander on this matter. They are autonomous but they are also funded heavily by the taxpayer. We have a right as an Oireachtas to have a policy view on this. Deputy Conway-Walsh asked about a sustainable funding model and there will be a list of...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Costs (8 Feb 2022)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for his time when we visited Midleton College and Carrigtwohill Community College recently. I had a chance to engage with students about some of their pathways and options after school and to see the new and exciting plan for Carrigtwohill Community College. I, along with everybody in the House, am highly conscious of the rising cost of living and how we must work...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Educational Disadvantage (8 Feb 2022)

Simon Harris: I am 100% up for that. I hope the Oireachtas and Oireachtas committees, including Deputy Michael Moynihan, can genuinely play a helpful and active role in monitoring this. It is not a static document. In my term as Minister, I have been regularly invited to the oversight group. We publish the documents and the targets, but then the work begins. Our figures for higher education...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Fees (8 Feb 2022)

Simon Harris: This is something on which we agree. I passionately believe we have to reduce the cost of education. We have already taken a number of steps since the Government took office just under two years ago. I will not go through them all in the time available. There is the first increase in the SUSI grants. I accept that some of them do not take effect until September, but some of them have...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Fees (8 Feb 2022)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for the points she raised and for the constructive manner in which she did so. It is important to say there are existing supports available, and I always say this particularly when I visit schools because sometimes students, when they hear about the cost of education, might not perhaps be aware of that fact. That is worth saying whilst trying to improve them. More than...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Fees (8 Feb 2022)

Simon Harris: Surely the Deputy would like the Government to take an all-island approach.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Fees (8 Feb 2022)

Simon Harris: It is a commitment under the Good Friday Agreement that I must fulfil as a Government Minister.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Fees (8 Feb 2022)

Simon Harris: That is an extraordinary answer.