Results 8,281-8,300 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Education (Admission to School) Bill 2016: Report Stage (29 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: I move amendment No. 1:In page 3, line 16, to delete “a school,” and substitute the following: “a school; and to provide that, following a report from the National Council for Special Education, in certain circumstances the Minister may issue a direction in respect of the additional provision of education for children with special educational needs;”. These...

Order of Business (29 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: The Bill will be debated in the Chamber. We have had detailed consultation on it and the proposal is based on that considerable discussion. We value the diversity in the system which includes Church of Ireland, Methodist, Presbyterian and, of course, Catholic schools. However, that does not mean that an admissions policy should exclude someone unfairly from access to his or her local...

Order of Business (29 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: A review of career guidance is under way, a matter raised by Deputy Kathleen Funchion last week. Specifically, it will consider the issue of whether provision needs to be made in special schools. The closing date for submissions to the review was last week, but I extended it by a week. If the Deputy wants to make a submission, we would be pleased to receive it.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (29 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs) for allocating a quantum of Special Needs Assistant (SNA) support for each school annually taking into account the assessed care needs of children qualifying for SNA support enrolled in the school.  The NCSE allocates SNA support to schools in...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: National Development Plan Funding (29 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: Since 2007, my Department has invested €1.8m of capital funding in the college referred to by the Deputy. This includes €0.343m of funding approved during the summer of 2017 for refurbishment and repair works related to an increase in its student intake.   The Higher Education Authority (HEA) is currently in discussions with the college in relation to...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: State Examinations Commission (29 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: The State Examinations Commission has statutory responsibility for operational matters relating to the certificate examinations. In view of this I have forwarded your query to the State Examinations Commission for direct reply to you

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Contractors (29 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: The contractor in question has not withdrawn from the tender competition for the project to which the Deputy refers. However, the local Education and Training Board, to whom the project has been devolved for delivery, has excluded the contractor from the competition and has now moved on to evaluating the tender from the next lowest bidder. 

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Fees (29 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: Under my Department's Free Fees Initiative, the Exchequer provides funding towards tuition fees in respect of eligible students who are pursuing approved full-time undergraduate courses of study within the State. In order to qualify for funding under the Free Fees Initiative, students must be first-time undergraduates, hold inter alia, EU/EEA/Swiss nationality in their own right, and...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Planning (29 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: As the Deputy may be aware, in order to plan for school provision and analyse the relevant demographic data in a way that takes account of the significant local and regional variations in demographic trends and enrolment projections, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas, of which some 40 are in Dublin.  Using school planning area boundaries within my...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Planning (29 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: As the Deputy may be aware, in order to plan for school provision and analyse the relevant demographic data, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas. For school planning purposes Meakstown/Charlestown is located in the Finglas East_Ballymun_Dublin 11 school planning area, in which there are currently 9 primary schools. Each school planning area, including...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Facilities (29 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: I wish to advise the Deputy that my Department's focus in recent years has been on prioritising the funding available for the provision of essential classroom accommodation to meet demographic need. As the Deputy will be aware, due to the competing demands on my Department's capital budget imposed by the need to prioritise the available funding in this manner, it is not possible at this...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Staff (29 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs) for allocating a quantum of Special Needs Assistant (SNA) support for each school annually taking into account the assessed care needs of children qualifying for SNA support enrolled in the school.  The NCSE allocates SNA support to schools in...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (29 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: The criteria used for the allocation of teaching posts is published annually on the Department website. The key factor for determining the level of staffing resources provided at individual school level is the staffing schedule for the relevant school year and pupil enrolments on the previous 30 September. The criteria for the appointment of an administrative deputy principal to a...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Facilities (29 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: I wish to advise the Deputy that my Department provided very significant devolved funding to the school in question to provide a 470m2 two classroom ASD Unit. The grant approved included funding for a large central activities space in the Unit together with a 200m2 secure hard/soft play area and six car parking spaces to meet the needs of the children attending the unit in question.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (29 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: I can confirm to the Deputy that the school in question applied for significant capital funding for a major development at the school. I understand that it is the school’s intention to establish an ASD class in the school in September 2018. As the school’s existing accommodation does not have capacity to facilitate the establishment of the class, my Department has...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Capitation Grants (29 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: As the Deputy is aware, funding provided by my Department to primary schools is dealt with on a per capitabasis, including for schools in County Waterford. The two main grants are the Capitation grant to cater for day to day running costs such as heating, lighting, cleaning, insurance, general up-keep etc and the Ancillary Services grant to cater for the cost of employing ancillary services...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: DEIS Scheme (29 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: I wish to advise the Deputy that my Department has, for the first time, introduced an objective, statistics based model for deciding which schools merit inclusion in the DEIS Programme, so that all stakeholders can have confidence that we are targeting extra resources at those schools with the highest concentrated levels of disadvantage. The key data sources used in the DEIS identification...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Capitation Grants (29 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: I recognise the need to improve capitation funding for schools having regard to the reductions that were necessary over recent years. It is difficult to make precise comparisons between the levels of grants paid and the actual costs of running schools at primary, post-primary and third level. In general, post-primary schools and third level institutions are larger than primary...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Management (29 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 241 and 242 together. Section 14 of the Education Act 1998, provides that the appointment of a Board of Management of a school is a matter for the relevant school patron. Section 16 of the Education Act 1998 provides that the patron may, either dissolve a Board if they are dissatisfied that the functions of a Board are not being effectively discharged...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Management (29 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: Section 14 of the Education Act 1998 provides that the appointment of a Board of Management of a school is a matter for the relevant school patron. The Governance Manual for Primary Schools 2015-2019 published by my Department sets out the requirement for a patron to provide my Department with a completed declaration at Appendix F of the manual where there is a change in chairperson...