Results 8,621-8,640 of 19,576 for speaker:Norma Foley

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (18 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: As the Deputy will be aware, for school planning purposes, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas and utilises a Geographical Information System to anticipate school place demand. Information from a range of sources, including Child Benefit data, school enrolment data and information on residential development activity is used for this purpose.  Additionally,...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Patronage (18 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: The Government’s objective is to have at least 400 multi-denominational schools in the primary system by 2030 to improve parental choice.  I fully support this commitment and I am working with my Department in this respect.  The Schools Recon?guration for Diversity process, supporting transfers of schools to multi-denominational patrons in response to the wishes of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Irish Language (18 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: Work on the development of a new policy for Irish-medium education outside of the Gaeltacht is under way in my Department. A public consultation process is currently being undertaken to seek the views of interested stakeholders. The information gathered during the public consultation, along with research commissioned by my Department, will inform the development of the new policy. The...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Irish Language (18 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: I wish to advise the Deputy that requirements for additional school places is kept under on-going review in the context of available information on population, enrolments and residential development activity.  In order to plan for school provision and analyse the relevant demographic data, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas and uses a Geographical...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (18 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: The development of a new policy for Irish-medium education outside the Gaeltacht is an important objective for my Department. The formation of this new policy will be part of the overall framework of the 20-year Strategy for the Irish language 2010-2030 and will build on the achievements of the Policy on Gaeltacht Education 2017-2022. The Policy will be an important step towards achieving the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Disadvantaged Status (18 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: My Department provides a wide range of supports to all schools, DEIS and non-DEIS, to support the inclusion of all students and address barriers to students achieving their potential. Supplementing these universal supports, the DEIS programme provides a targeted and equitable way to address concentrated educational disadvantage that promotes equity across the primary and post-primary sector....

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Disadvantaged Status (18 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: In March this year I was glad to be able to announce a major expansion of the DEIS programme. For the first time since 2017, the programme has been significantly expanded to include an additional 322 schools. This means that the DEIS programme now supports over 240,000 students in over 1,200 schools addressing educational disadvantage. Schools were identified for inclusion in the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Patronage (18 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: The Government’s objective is to have at least 400 multidenominational schools in the primary system by 2030 to improve parental choice. I fully support this commitment and I am working with my Department in this respect. The Schools Reconfiguration for Diversity process, supporting transfers of schools to multidenominational patrons in response to the wishes of local families, has...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (18 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: 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 147,900 children, including over 18,000 children with special educational needs, are transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. In addition, school transport scheme services are being...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Enrolments (18 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: 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. In most areas, school planning areas were based on traditional school catchment areas where all...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Site Acquisitions (18 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: As the Deputy is aware, in April 2018 it was announced that 42 new schools were to be established over the period of 2019 to 2022. This announcement included a new 800 pupil post-primary school to serve Blanchardstown_WestD15 & BlanchardstownVge_D15 School Planning Areas. In line with the policy on the use of State assets, which is also consistent with the objective of the National...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Ministerial Responsibilities (18 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: Work is under way in my Department regarding the submission to Government, in due course, of any delegation orders required on the reappointment of Josepha Madigan T.D. as Minister of State with responsibility for Special Education and Inclusion and on the appointment of Thomas Byrne T.D. as Minister of State with responsibility for Sport and Physical Education in my Department.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Enrolments (18 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: As the Deputy will be aware, for school planning purposes, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas and utilises a Geographical Information System to anticipate school place demand. Information from a range of sources, including Child Benefit data, school enrolment data and information on residential development activity is used for this purpose. Additionally, Project...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Data (18 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: Minister Foley has not contracted any organisation, company or person for media training from 1 January 2021 to date.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (18 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: In relation to a school bus service for children who are living in temporary hotel accommodation in County Meath, officials in the School Transport unit of my department are currently liaising with Bus Éireann who operates the School Transport scheme on behalf of my department. Bus Éireann has advised that they are looking at a number of options in order to accommodate the pupils...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education Policy (18 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: As the Deputy is aware, the Irish language is accorded special status in Ireland and is protected by various pieces of Legislation and in particular Article 8 of our Constitution. The language has particular social, historical and educational importance and is part of the unique cultural heritage of the Irish people. The Education Act 1998 recognises the particular responsibility of the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Properties (18 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: Agreement in principle was reached between my Department and the HSE for the disposal of a site to the HSE for the location of a primary health centre. There are a number of elements in relation to this agreement that are currently being progressed by my Department in conjunction with the HSE. It is intended that the transfer will be completed as soon as possible.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Disadvantaged Status (18 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: My Department provides a wide range of supports to all schools, DEIS and non-DEIS, to support the inclusion of all students and address barriers to students achieving their potential. Supplementing these universal supports, the DEIS programme provides a targeted and equitable way to address concentrated educational disadvantage that promotes equity across the primary and post-primary sector....

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Pupil-Teacher Ratio (18 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: The following table shows the requested data. 2021-2022 is the most recent year we have published data for on the DE website. Class data, including average class size, for the academic year 2022-23 will be available in June 2023. This figure is based on mainstream classes in mainstream schools and are collated from the relevant Class Size tables published on the DES website and can be found...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: State Examinations (18 Jan 2023)

Norma Foley: Given the extraordinary arrangements which applied to examinations in 2020 and again in 2021, fees were not charged. 2022 saw the welcome return of written examinations for all candidates, and on 3 February 2022 I confirmed that fees would not be charged for the 2022 examinations. No decision has yet been made in regard to fees to be charged for 2023. The Deputy may wish to note that,...