Results 841-860 of 15,908 for speaker:Helen McEntee

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year, over 172,500 children, are transported daily in approximately 7,900 vehicles across 10,300 routes daily to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. These daily trips cover over 100 million kilometres. This figure includes...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: The large-scale capital project for the school referred to by the Deputies is the provision of a new 600 pupil school building including all associated ancillary accommodation. The project was originally authorised to proceed to tender, upon completion of the prequalification shortlisting process in September 2022. Planning Permission was due to expire in December 2022 and it was...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: I can assure the Deputy that the provision of school places to meet the needs of children and young people at primary and post primary level, including children and young people with special educational needs is an absolute priority of mine. The decision-making authority for any change of status is the patron/trustees of the school concerned and it is open to any patron to submit...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: The project referred to by the Deputy has been devolved to the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA) for delivery as part of a programme of school building projects. The brief for the project is to provide a new build replacement school for a long-term projected enrolment of 1,000 pupils including a 4 class SEN base. The project is currently in the final stages of Stage 2b of the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: The campus project referred to by the Deputy has been devolved for delivery to Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board (KWETB) on behalf of the school authority. The project was authorised by the Department to proceed to Stage 3 of the architectural design process (tender stage) in November 2024 and KWETB confirmed in January 2025 that the project had gone to Tender. The date...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year, over 172,500 children, are transported daily in approximately 7,900 vehicles across 10,300 routes daily to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. These daily trips cover over 100 million kilometres. This figure includes...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: I can confirm to the Deputy that my department is in receipt of an application for funding from the school in question. This application for temporary accommodation is being assessed under the department's Additional School Accommodation (ASA) Scheme. The purpose of the ASA scheme is to ensure that essential mainstream classroom and special education needs (SEN) accommodation is...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: State Examinations (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: Following the implementation of calculated grades in 2020 and the dual approach of examinations and accredited grades in 2021, two types of intervention have been implemented in recent years: adjustments to examination and assessments arrangements, and a post-marking adjustment to outcomes. This post-marking adjustment has ensured that results in the aggregate have remained the same on...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: I can confirm to the Deputy that an application has been received for a Contract of Indefinite Duration in respect of the teacher concerned. The application is currently being processed and a decision will issue shortly. In accordance with Circular 0023/2015 even where all requirements are met, the award of a CID is subject to being a viable post in the school in the following year. ...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: Following discussions between the Department and patron and principal of Belmayne Educate Together Secondary School (ETSS), it has been agreed that Belmayne Community Special School will operate within the special education needs unit in the ETSS supplemented by some modular accommodation to be retained on the site. This combined accommodation will assist in future proofing special school...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Physical Education (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: Under the provisions of the Education Act, 1998 the board of management is the body charged with the direct governance of a school and the principal is responsible for the day-to-day management of the school, including arrangements for co-curricular and extra-curricular activities. While the decision to become involved in organised school sports is a matter for each school, all schools are...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: I can confirm to the Deputy, that the school in question has submitted an application for capital funding, under my department's Additional School Accommodation (ASA) Scheme for additional accommodation. The purpose of my department’s Additional School Accommodation (or ASA) scheme is to ensure that essential mainstream classroom accommodation and accommodation for pupils with...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: The ADAPT 4 Programme will be led by Integrated Project Teams (IPT’s), consisting of highly skilled and experienced design professionals, architects, engineers, project managers, quantity surveyors and various other consultants to deliver the projects. AECOM, as the Programme Manager, are overseeing the procurement and appointment of the IPT’s. It is anticipated that the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Physical Education (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: The major project referred to by the Deputy is being delivered under my Departments ADAPT Programme. ADAPT is an acronym for "Accelerated Delivery of Architectural Planning and Tendering". The ADAPT Programme uses a professional external Project Manager to co-ordinate and drive the Design Team to achieve the best possible timeframe during the stages of architectural planning. The...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Bodies (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: The Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies (2016) provides a framework for the application of best practice in corporate governance for non-commercial state bodies. Aegis bodies should demonstrate their commitment to achieving the highest possible standards of corporate governance. Within their financial statements state bodies are required to confirm that they comply with the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: Ensuring that every child's experience in school is positive and that they have qualified, engaged teachers available to support them in their learning is a priority area of action for the Government. A Steering Group on Teacher Supply was established in my Department in 2018. The Steering Group is leading on the identification of issues, the development of a programme of actions on...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Reviews (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: My Department has a number of ongoing projects to maximise the use of data to ensure evidence-informed policy making across its activities. These projects will harness the potential of data for evidence-based decision making, in line with the Civil Service Renewal 2030 commitment to “develop a rigorous, professional, and evidence-informed approach to policy development”. The...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Functions (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: My Department’s ETB Financial and Administrative Personnel Unit (ETB Unit) provides a range of operational, resourcing and support functions to Education and Training Boards (ETBs). The main areas of the unit’s work are -The administration and issue of a wide range of grant funding to ETBs in respect of their schools and head offices,The allocation of administrative and...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Functions (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: I refer to the Deputy’s question regarding the expected timeline for the remaining ETBs migration of expense functions to the Education Shared Business Services (ESBS). Thirteen ETBs have now migrated their Travel and Subsistence (Expenses) payments function to ESBS, and ESBS processed 6,698 expenses payments on behalf of ETBs during the course of 2024. A further two ETBs, namely...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Functions (29 Apr 2025)

Helen McEntee: The Department of Education has utilised cloud computing, including software as a service (SaaS) for many years. My department’s adoption and utilisation of cloud services has been informed by the DPENDR/OGCIO cloud computing advice notes from 2015 to date. These publications guide and inform my department on the latest industry, policy and legislative developments and enable...