Results 8,421-8,440 of 45,510 for speaker:Simon Harris

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for the question and the important issue he is raising. It is important to say at the outset that the SUSI scheme does take account of the circumstances of people in receipt of the working family payment. First, as the Deputy knows, the working family payment is treated as an income disregard. This means that it is not included in the reckonable income for the student...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: I very much take the seriousness of the point the Deputy is making. Regardless of whether a large or small number are affected, the point is important and valid. I approached the answer to the question in that spirit. We are slightly at risk of talking at cross purposes. Regarding the relevance of SUSI, I want to be clear again that the working family payment is an income disregard so...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy, and I assure him that students in the technological universities, including in the new Atlantic technological university serving Mayo, Galway, Sligo, Donegal and the north-west region, will indeed be eligible to apply. Regarding the further education sector, I am glad the Deputy raised this matter, because we have made two significant changes to support students in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Dillon for this important and timely question. The Speak Out tool, launched last month, as the Deputy said, is an online, anonymous reporting tool for incidents of bullying, harassment, discrimination, assault, sexual harassment and sexual assault, led by the PCHEI group, with funding provided by my Department. Speak Out allows staff and students to report harassment across...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: I am really pleased by the progress being made in the sector. I thank the staff and student leaders in the sector for all the work that is taking place on the issue of consent and sexual harassment and ensuring that good reporting tools are in place in this regard. Good work had been done in respect of developing a national framework, but national frameworks are not enough. Institutions...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: It very much is, and, as the Deputy said, it is so important that the tool uses affirmative language as well, because this is an anonymous reporting tool. It is based on similar tools used in higher education institutions in the United Kingdom. As a result of anonymity, the tool uses affirmative language, such as “perpetrator”, to assure those speaking out that we believe...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Technological Universities (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: I give the Deputy that absolute assurance but, in all honesty, this Oireachtas has not given me any legal powers to create a technological university or to compel an institute of technology to become a technological university without somebody applying for that to happen, that body being an autonomous higher education institution. However, I am delighted that Dundalk Institute of Technology...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Technological Universities (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: The Deputy will have my help. He asked me what the problem is. The problem is that the institute has not applied. The truth of the matter is that it did not apply when all of the other institutes did, for whatever reason. That was the institute's choice. I am really pleased that people right across the institution, including staff, students, the governing authority and management, now...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Dillon for the question. I also thank him for talking about technological universities and for the work we have done together. I am delighted that the technological university for the north west now has a name. It will be the Atlantic technological university and will come into being in April. I am also delighted to see advertisements being placed to find the leadership of...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Third Level Education (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for his interest in this matter. In 2015, the HEA commissioned an independent review of the student assistance fund as part of the national plan for equity of access to higher education. The main finding of that review was a confirmation that the student assistance fund continues to be highly valued as a source of support for students. Demand remains strong. What I like...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Student Accommodation (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: The first thing we have done is change the law, not once but twice, on student accommodation and student renters. The first thing the Union of Students in Ireland asked us to do - I think the Deputy co-sponsored legislation on this - was to change the rule so that a student renter could not be asked to pay four, five or six months' rent up front, which was happening. The law is now very...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Student Accommodation (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: In the time available to me, I will take as read the answers I have given on the immediate measures we are taking through increasing the student assistance fund and the like for day-to-day costs and the cost of living increases, which are real. The Deputy has asked me a very direct question in what I mean as to the cost rental model. A number of our higher education institutions currently...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Student Accommodation (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: I take the point about the devil being in the detail on the cost rental model and I am happy to further engage with the Deputy on that as we explore the matter with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. I am genuinely excited about the prospect that this could be a new beginning for student accommodation. On the issue of cost and affordability, I made the point that I...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Technological Universities (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Fitzpatrick for meeting me about this matter with other Members from Louth. I assure him that the north east will not be left behind. I would have been delighted had I received an application from the north-east institute to become a technological university. I am sure the Deputy and I share that real and palpable frustration as to why when a number of other institutes of...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Third Level Costs (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: Those statistics around the European Union only hold up because the United Kingdom and, sadly, Northern Ireland are no longer in the European Union. We certainly will not implement the system that the UK and Northern Ireland has for student loans. I do not believe in them or that they work. I have yet to see a country that has implemented this successfully. I also do not like the concept...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Third Level Examinations (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for raising an important and timely question. Higher education and research and further education and training, including apprenticeship have been confirmed and reconfirmed by the Government as an essential service in the course of the pandemic. They continue, therefore, to take place on-site, consistent with the safe return plan published by my Department last June and...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Third Level Examinations (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: Respectfully, the last time I took Oral Questions in the House the Deputy was asking me to increase on-site attendance and I shared that view with her. I said to her then what I will say now, albeit in a different context. Everything must be done in the context of public health and the framework we have agreed with all stakeholders, including students, their union and, crucially, the Chief...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Third Level Examinations (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: Of course I will look at such matters continually but I will not defy public health advice approach, no matter which way it goes. I will not decide on the floor of Dáil Éireann that I will move exams online because I do not control the decision and institutions are autonomous. Additionally, such a decision is not in our space, and as politicians and public representatives our role...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Third Level Costs (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: As the Deputy will know, the SUSI scheme is demand led. I can set the criteria and I can improve the criteria, but ultimately it is a demand-led scheme. Money can only be drawn down from that scheme where applicants qualify for that scheme. As of 21 November, just a few days ago, SUSI had received almost 97,000 applications. Almost 94,000 of them have been assessed of which 74,600 have...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Third Level Costs (30 Nov 2021)

Simon Harris: The Deputy said students need clarity on it; I believe students have clarity on it. Tomorrow I will meet all student union presidents throughout the country in a meeting convened by the Union of Students in Ireland, USI. We regularly and I personally engage with student unions. I take the point about the millions. It is peculiar for the Deputy to suggest that because we are providing such...