Results 8,241-8,260 of 46,267 for speaker:Simon Harris

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Expenditure (10 May 2022)

Simon Harris: It is my Department's policy intention that, over a number of years, additional annual core funding of €307million will be prioritised through the Estimates process in order to deliver on the increased level of funding identified in this framework, while taking account of the Government’s budgetary and fiscal stance.  It should be noted that the annual...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Education (10 May 2022)

Simon Harris: My Department is considering how a borrowing framework for technological universities (TUs) might be developed in the first instance for the provision of student accommodation. The impacts, risks and responsibilities arising from such borrowing are key considerations in this context. In addition to accessing borrowing on commercially viable and appropriate terms such as  would not...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Reform (10 May 2022)

Simon Harris: On the 4th of May I launched Funding the Future – a landmark policy on the future of higher education. The policy sets out the vision and direction of higher education funding, our commitment to addressing legacy issues in higher education and detailing our ambitious plans for investment and reform. Funding the Future was created as part of a Department of Further and Higher...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Reform (10 May 2022)

Simon Harris: On the 4thof May I launched Funding the Future – a landmark policy on the future of higher education. Funding the Future, which was approved for publication by Government, settles the question on funding Higher Education. The Government has decided that income contingent loans for fees will not form part of the future funding model. Instead, the Government is committing to a...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Pharmacy Services (5 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: Third Level Education (5 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...

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

Simon Harris: I thank the Chair for the invitation. It is good the committee will be hearing from me and then directly afterwards from the USI, IUA and THEA because my experience of working on these issues around gender equality has very much been one of partnership right across the sector. I hope we can begin to knit together a full picture and range of views on these important issues. Before I begin I...

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 Cannon. I realise he knows about this matter from his time in what was the Department of Education and Skills, his work on CoderDojo and his interest in this whole area. I could list out all we are doing at third level, as I did in my opening statement, but the Deputy is entirely correct that these decisions are made by young girls long before they get to third...

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

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Clarke. I will get her Twitch in a minute. I find myself in agreement with much of what she has said. On the issue of lone parents, while I do not need to mansplain this in any way to the Deputy, she is right that we have made progress. That is a statement of fact. In truth, there are now more people from diverse and different backgrounds entering higher education. The...

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...