Results 8,681-8,700 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (3 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: Budget 2018 marked the second year of major reinvestment in the education sector, as we continue to implement the Action Plan for Education, which has the central aim to make the Irish Education and training service the best in Europe within a decade. Budget 2018 provides for an additional 1280 teaching posts in the 2018/19 school year. This includes a one point improvement in the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Capitation Grants (3 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 81, 85 and 87 together. The estimated cost of restoring capitation funding is provided in the following tables. Estimated cost of restoring Capitation Funding to pre-2011 levels Schools Primary Schools €17.6m Post-Primary Schools €18.0m Estimated full year cost of % Increases in Capitation Funding Schools Primary Schools – 10%...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Management (3 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: Circular 12/2016, which is available on the Department website, outlines the number of days that teaching principals may take as release time in a school year in order to assist them fulfilling their principal duties. Under these arrangements my Department pays for a substitute teacher to be employed by a school to facilitate administrative functions to be undertaken by the teaching...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: National Educational Psychological Service Data (3 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: I can inform the Deputy that my Department's National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) provides an educational psychological service to all primary and post primary schools through an assigned NEPS psychologist and in some cases through the Scheme for Commissioning Psychological Assessments (SCPA), full details of which are on the Department's website. The Programme for a...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Data (3 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: I wish to advise the Deputy that DES Circular 0013/2017 for primary schools and 0014/2017 for post primary schools were published on 7th March 2017. These Circulars set out the details of the new model for allocating special education teachers to schools. The new Special Education Teaching allocation provides a single unified allocation for special educational support teaching needs...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Guidance Counsellors (3 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: Measures announced by my Department as part of Budgets 2016, 2017 and 2018 mean that 500 of the 600 guidance posts that were withdrawn in Budget 2012, will be restored to schools from September 2018. These 500 posts are allocated separately and transparently on each school's staffing schedule. These posts have been ring-fenced so they can only be used for guidance activities and to meet the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teachers' Remuneration (3 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: As a consequence of the economic crisis, there was a need to enact a number of measures to reduce public expenditure so as to stabilise the country's public finances. The Government approved a number of measures relating to public service allowances following a public service-wide review of allowances and premium payments conducted by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. As a...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teachers' Remuneration (3 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: The annual allowance currently payable for the post of Assistant Principal 1 is €8,520 and Assistant Principal 2 is €3,769. The annual costs of appointing 350 posts at AP1 & AP2 level are outlined below: Assistant Principal 1 Annual Allowance: €8,520 Annual Cost of 350 AP1 Posts: €2,982,000 Assistant Principal 2 Annual Allowance: €3,769 Annual Cost...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Curriculum (3 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: Exact expenditure figures regarding the teaching of Computing or Coding in primary schools are not available, as funding is not allocated by my Department on a subject-by-subject basis. However, work in this area is taking place at both primary and post-primary levels. Shortly after being appointed, I asked the NCCA how coding and computational and creative thinking skills could be...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grants Data (3 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: The Deputy will be aware of the Programme for Government commitment to increase financial supports for post graduate students with a particular focus on those from low income households. In response to this commitment, additional funding of €4 million was secured in Budget 2017 and a further €3 million in Budget 2018, to facilitate the reinstatement of full maintenance...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grants Data (3 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: According to the CSO, prices on average, as measured by the CPI, were 0.2% higher in March 2018 compared with March 2017. In the academic year 2016/2017 the total amount spend on maintenance grants was €170.9m. Applying a 0.2% increase to the maintenance grant expenditure of €170.9m would increase the cost by €341k.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Assistance Fund (3 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: In December 2012, an additional €3 million was approved to supplement the Student Assistance Fund (SAF) following a survey conducted by the HEA in relation to the demand for the Fund. This supplementary funding was a once-off exceptional measure which was taken in the context of long grant delays/issues encountered by Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI) in its initial year of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Summer Works Scheme Applications (3 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: The Summer Works Scheme is designed to allow schools to carry out small and medium scale building works that will improve and upgrade existing school buildings. This scheme is additional to other capital funding schemes that are operated by the Department such as the additional accommodation scheme, Emergency Works scheme i.e. for projects of such urgency that they would prevent some or all...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: DEIS Applications (3 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: Schools are not required to make an application for inclusion in the DEIS programme, as all schools are assessed using a new uniform identification model. We have, 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...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (3 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. As the Deputy will be aware, I recently...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (2 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) are provided to assist recognised schools to cater for pupils with disabilities, who have additional and significant care needs, in an educational context and where the nature of these care needs have been outlined in medical and other professional reports as being so significant that a pupil will require additional adult assistance in order to be able to...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme (2 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: The main support available to assist students with the cost of higher education is the student grant scheme. SUSI’s online system for the 2018 Scheme is now open. Students attending college in the academic year 2018/19 are required to submit their grant application to SUSI (via ) to have their eligibility for grant assistance assessed. Students attending approved undergraduate...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (2 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: Assistant Principal I and Assistant Principal II (formerly Special Duties posts), along with the Principal and Deputy Principal make up the middle management structure in schools. Budget 2017 allowed for the commencement of restoration of middle management posts as part of an agreed distributed leadership model and meant lifting the rigidity of the longstanding moratorium on these posts at...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Pupil-Teacher Ratio (2 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 staffing schedule also includes an appeals mechanism for schools to submit an...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Curriculum (2 May 2018)

Richard Bruton: Junior Cycle Implementation of the new framework is proceeding. Implementation commenced in September 2014 with the introduction of English, for first year students. Subjects are being introduced on a phased basis up to 2019 and are being supported by a comprehensive CPD programme for teachers. The new Junior Cycle gives schools greater flexibility to design programmes that are...