Results 9,621-9,640 of 45,510 for speaker:Simon Harris

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Electric Vehicles (28 Apr 2021)

Simon Harris: I can confirm to the Deputy that my Department does not lease or own any vehicles. The information in respect of state bodies within the scope of the Deputy’s question is not held by my Department. Contact details for these bodies are set out in the attached document should the Deputy wish to contact them directly with his query. Contact E-Mail Addresses for State Bodies under the...

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Responses to Brexit in Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (26 Apr 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank the committee for providing me with the opportunity to update it on a number of key Brexit matters which fall within the scope of my Department. It is really important that we continue to have Oireachtas committees scrutinising such issues. We are five months into post-Brexit implementation and while it no longer occupies the day-to-day level of political and media attention that it...

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Responses to Brexit in Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (26 Apr 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank the Senator. We will deliver three technological universities and we will definitely deliver one for the south-east. I can assure him of that and thank him for his leadership on the matter. I look forward to engaging with him intensively this week on it. I sincerely thank him for his kind words about my officials in my Department and the HEA, which I echo. In particular, I...

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Responses to Brexit in Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (26 Apr 2021)

Simon Harris: In relation to going to the UK to study or a UK student coming here, I am pleased that as a result of the common travel area and agreements between Britain and Ireland, there is no change to the cost of going to college in the UK, with the exception of Scotland. That is-----

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Responses to Brexit in Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (26 Apr 2021)

Simon Harris: It is 10,000. The Scottish thing is a significant change, there is no two ways about it. Before Brexit, as an Irish student, I could head to Scotland and avail of the Scottish free fees initiative. I cannot now. The short answer as to what other supports are available is that I am pleased and grateful to the Scottish Government for allowing access to Irish students to some of its loan...

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Responses to Brexit in Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (26 Apr 2021)

Simon Harris: I agree with that. The Government, in the previous budget, funded 4,000 additional college places this year compared with the current year. Every year, we grow quite substantially the number of college places. In fairness to Government, the Minister, Deputy McGrath, and others who provided funding in this regard, as a result of the pandemic, we have significantly grown the size of the...

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Responses to Brexit in Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (26 Apr 2021)

Simon Harris: Absolutely. There are three parts to the work the Higher Education Authority, HEA, is doing with my Department. One is identifying what more the colleges could do with current resources. The second is what more they could do with additional resources while obviously trying as much as possible to benefit from the CAO data in terms of where the demand is. The third part is trickiest but...

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Responses to Brexit in Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (26 Apr 2021)

Simon Harris: The short answer is that we are not but we have really started on a lot of it over the past couple of months. I will give the Senator two examples related to the most difficult area. I refer to the work of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth on child protection and welfare and the work being led by the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, on disability....

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Responses to Brexit in Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (26 Apr 2021)

Simon Harris: We are full and very willing participants in that process. In fairness to the Minister of State, she has turbocharged this since coming into office. There are other areas but disability is a good example of where there is a need to join up the public service need with the number of training places. Sláintecare, and health more broadly, is another example. If we want to deliver on...

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Responses to Brexit in Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (26 Apr 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank Senator O'Reilly for his questions. As a Border politician, he is particularly conscious of the North-South issues. To be very clear, we are exploring, and will be proactive in exploring, every possible opportunity to do more on a North-South basis. I have had many interesting political meetings on this. I had a very good meeting with the leader of the SDLP, Colum Eastwood, on...

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Responses to Brexit in Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (26 Apr 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank the Chairperson for her questions. Speaking bluntly, the point she made about Erasmus is correct. My Department needs to make the case - and we will - that there are additional costs for Irish students accessing Erasmus abroad in comparison with students who live on the Continent. If I lived somewhere in mainland Europe, I could connect with universities and institutions in other...

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Responses to Brexit in Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (26 Apr 2021)

Simon Harris: The issue of funding is an important one on which the Taoiseach and I are engaging intensively. We had the Cassells report in the previous Oireachtas. In an interesting decision, an all-party Oireachtas committee decided there was a need for another report. That work is now under way with input from the European Commission. It is due to land in the next quarter, and what I can tell the...

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Responses to Brexit in Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (26 Apr 2021)

Simon Harris: Yes, I agree.

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Responses to Brexit in Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (26 Apr 2021)

Simon Harris: On Horizon 2020, the precursor to Horizon Europe, we did very well in the end. We have drawn down more than €1 billion, but we are ambitious to do even more. That is even more essential now because science, research and innovation is going to be our future economic and societal well-being. We have seen that during the pandemic. We see it in all the international debate going on...

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Responses to Brexit in Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (26 Apr 2021)

Simon Harris: Agreed.

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Responses to Brexit in Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (26 Apr 2021)

Simon Harris: I think the Senator was instrumental in my being invited here. I think he had a Commencement Matter a few months ago on professional qualifications and mutual recognition. I went into it in my opening statement but a significant amount of progress has been made due to very pragmatic, intensive and painstaking engagement by many regulators - probably more than 40 - to work our way through...

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union: Responses to Brexit in Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (26 Apr 2021)

Simon Harris: I have to get out of that bad old habit of over-talking. I tend to do that at the end of every meeting. I get too relaxed and start to say too much. We have a lot of work to do with regard to Magee. The British and Irish Governments have made a commitment in respect of Magee. I and my officials have had meetings regarding Magee. We have met with people in Magee and Ulster University and...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (22 Apr 2021)

Simon Harris: Ireland is designated as a programme country under the Erasmus+ programme. As a programme country, Ireland is eligible to participate in all actions of the programme and has benefitted significantly from our participation.   The policy of my Department, as national authority for the programme, has always been to strongly encourage participation in Erasmus+ . The Department as...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Covid-19 Pandemic (22 Apr 2021)

Simon Harris: The decision to support Erasmus+ participants with mandatory hotel quarantine was taken in the specific context of the Erasmus programme, for which my Department is the national authority. Ireland is designated as a programme country under the Erasmus+ programme. As part of the programme, each programme country must nominate a national authority to monitor and supervise the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Funding (22 Apr 2021)

Simon Harris: Our higher education institutions have a duty of care to their students and staff, and a responsibility to foster a campus culture that is clear in the condemnation of unwanted and unacceptable behaviours, which act as barriers to their safety and their active participation in college life. In April 2019 the Framework for Consent in Higher Education Institutions: “Safe,...