Results 8,261-8,280 of 17,531 for speaker:Jan O'Sullivan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: We are probably straying into another area.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: Again, I cannot pre-empt what will happen in the budget. I am afraid that is as much as I can say on the matter. I will revert to Senator Naughton on her question. There are significant programmes on bullying. The most recent announcement on the issue related to funding for parents’ councils to provide training for parents and members of boards of management.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: Yes, there are. Next was Senator O'Donnell, who asked me some hard sums. We have been doing the sums here on the total numbers in education. I will give the breakdown first and then state the total at the end. I can supply the figures fully later on. There are approximately 65,000 in early childhood education, 536,317 in primary education, 333,213 in post-primary education, 165,000 in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: I thank the Senator for raising that question. It is an interesting one.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: We are just trying to get the figure for the literacy and numeracy strategy. I will come back to the Senator with it. We do evaluate it and there is strong evidence that it is working.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: It is an area that we need to continue to work on. When I was in the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government I launched the Right to Read campaign in the libraries. Literacy and numeracy needs to be part of a strategy not only in schools but also right across other elements of society.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: I will get those figures for the Senator in a minute. We have not got them yet. Junior cycle reform is really only starting. We are only starting with English this year. The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment has done all the preliminary work in terms of developing the curriculum, etc., and is continuing to do that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: It is a State-funded body and it does work right across the system in terms of curriculum and assessment. Its costs for junior cycle reform would presumably be part of the cost of running the organisation anyway. There is some teacher education involved, which has commenced, but again, I am going to have to give the Senator the figures later.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: It is only just commencing, so the costs will really start to escalate in future years, more so than in this particular year.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: Yes. We hope to have a figure later in the meeting.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: I have not got it on a printed piece of paper at this stage. I will come back to the Senator on both of those other questions.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: It does a lot of other work - a very wide range of work.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: Will I continue with the other answers and then we can come back to this? Senator Power asked about special needs as well.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: Every child who is deemed to need support gets support. There have been cuts that none of us has liked but we hope to be in a position to increase funding in the near future. We have increased funding on special needs education in terms of the number of resource teachers, SNAs, etc. I welcome Senator Power's statement about the importance of services and that it is important to maintain...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: That is why I am addressing it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: As the Senator knows, the Early Start programme has been there since the time when Niamh Bhreathnach was Minister for Education. We have that intervention, which is specifically for particularly disadvantaged areas. I have a very strong commitment in this area and I intend to ensure that we do improve the quality. Senator Power also asked about patronage. I will be continuing the work...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: It is exclusive.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: There were four areas in which cuts were carried from previous budgets into this year's one. There was the 1% reduction in primary and post-primary capitation. There is the further 1% reduction in capitation rate for the vocational training opportunities scheme, VTOS; Youthreach; the back to education initiative, BTEI; the post-leaving certificate, PLC, programme; and adult literacy. There...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: We cannot exactly quantify those until we know the numbers, when we get into September. A sum of €30 million is approximately what will come in under those measures.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)

Jan O'Sullivan: I cannot give exact figures but I think it is about €55 million to €65 million if everything is included. These are the kind of figures that we must talk to our colleagues about.