Results 81-100 of 6,969 for speaker:James Lawless

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (16 Oct 2025)

James Lawless: My Department is driving forward the development of apprenticeships, with a particular focus on the construction sector. Through the Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021–2025 and its successor, the Apprenticeship Action Plan 2026–2030, currently in development, we are shaping a strategic vision for the future of apprenticeship in Ireland. This is complemented by the Careers in...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (16 Oct 2025)

James Lawless: My Department is driving forward the development of apprenticeships, with a particular focus on the construction sector. Through the Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021–2025 and its successor, the Apprenticeship Action Plan 2026–2030, currently in development, we are shaping a strategic vision for the future of apprenticeship in Ireland. This is complemented by the Careers in...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (16 Oct 2025)

James Lawless: It is my priority that apprenticeship will be recognised and valued by employers across all sectors of the economy as a key mechanism for building a highly skilled workforce, contributing to productivity and sustainable growth. As part of this, plans are also in place to increase apprenticeship opportunities in the public and civil services. Currently, there are over 530 apprentices in the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Grant Payments (16 Oct 2025)

James Lawless: In general, for student grant purposes students are categorised according to their circumstances either as students dependent on their parent(s) or legal guardian(s), or as independent mature students. A student may be assessed as an independent student ifthey have attained the age of 23 on the 1st of January of the year of first entry or re-entry to an approved further education course...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education and Training Provision (16 Oct 2025)

James Lawless: The Further Education and Training system is central to the delivery of skills across the country, contributing significantly to national competitiveness and supporting inclusion. The Further Education and Training Act 2013 requires SOLAS to prepare a strategy in relation to the provision of further education and training and to submit it to my Department for my consideration and...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (16 Oct 2025)

James Lawless: I am committed to the apprenticeship model of learning. It is a proven pathway to a valued qualification and to employment. Since 2019 the total apprentice population has grown from 17,829 to 29,772 as of the end of last year. This has been matched by an increase in investment from €142m in 2019 to the over €400m earmarked for apprenticeship in 2026. Since 2016, indeed...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Accommodation (16 Oct 2025)

James Lawless: The Residential Tenancies Board is a quasi-judicial, independent statutory body under the Residential Tenancies Acts 2004 to 2025 that operates the national tenancy registration system and facilitates the resolution of disputes between landlords and tenants. This includes specific student accommodation. I can confirm that officials from my Department have engaged with the Residential...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education and Training Provision (16 Oct 2025)

James Lawless: SOLAS continue to support Kerry ETB (KETB) in the development of its Preliminary Business Case (PBC) proposal for Killarney under the FET College of the Future Major Projects fund. The proposal is one of twelve projects that are currently being progressed under this fund. The proposal put forward by KETB under the FET College of the Future Major Projects fund aims to transform FET...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Fees (16 Oct 2025)

James Lawless: I am conscious of financial challenges facing students and the need for the progressive implementation of measures to address costs as a barrier to education. It is a priority for me to explore the most effective ways to support students in managing the cost of education, with a view to enhancing our student support framework in a sustainable way that benefits students across the tertiary...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Community Training Centres (16 Oct 2025)

James Lawless: By way of background, Community Training Centres, or CTCs, were established in 1977 as Community Training Workshops to support young, unemployed people aged 16 and 25. Since 1988, they have been delivering the Youthreach programme. There are 31 CTCs throughout the country who are grant-funded by the Education and Training Boards, or ETBs, to deliver the Youthreach programme. CTCs are...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (16 Oct 2025)

James Lawless: I am very pleased that €79 million was invested in apprenticeship delivery in Budget 2026, bringing the total current budget for apprenticeship to over €410 million. This is an increase of over 120% in apprenticeship funding since 2020. More than doubling investment in apprenticeship since 2020 is a clear, concrete demonstration of the Government’s commitment to achieving...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (16 Oct 2025)

James Lawless: In Budget 2026, I have secured an additional €79 million investment for apprenticeship delivery that will directly support the expansion of the apprenticeship system. A further €2.5 million was secured to reduce the cost of attending higher education by permanently lowering fees by 17% for over 14,000 apprentices in the 2025/26 academic year. In recent years, supported by...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Cross-Border Co-operation (16 Oct 2025)

James Lawless: The recent revisions to the CAO points assigned to A level grades arose as a result of a Working Group established in 2023 under the auspices of Universities Ireland, which is an organisation composed of the Presidents and Vice Chancellors of Universities on the island of Ireland. Higher education institutions, as autonomous bodies, are responsible for their admissions policies and the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Accommodation (16 Oct 2025)

James Lawless: Housing for All includes specific actions to develop short-term state supports to activate the construction of Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA), alongside the design of a long-term policy framework for sustained state involvement in the sector. In the short term, my focus has been on enabling stalled PBSA projects with secured planning permission to proceed, addressing viability...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Costs (16 Oct 2025)

James Lawless: I am very conscious of the cost pressures facing students who pay for student accommodation or who commute long distances to their institutions. The Student Grant Scheme also recognises this by providing a higher non-adjacent maintenance grant rate for students whose normal residence is 30km or more from their institution. Students this academic year are benefitting from Budget 2025 which...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Costs (16 Oct 2025)

James Lawless: I am acutely conscious of the financial challenges facing students and the need for the progressive implementation of measures to address costs as a barrier to education. Since taking up office earlier this year, I have met with AMLÉ on three occasions, 31st March, 3rd April during our Stakeholder event and 17th June, 2025. Last month I also met with representatives from fifteen...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Mental Health Services (16 Oct 2025)

James Lawless: Mental health is an increasingly prominent issue across campuses and is a priority area for my Department. We also have a Programme for Government commitment to continue to support students experiencing mental health and wellbeing challenges. I am pleased to tell you that as a part of Budget 2026 I am providing a 20% increase or €1m additional ringfenced funding in to support mental...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (16 Oct 2025)

James Lawless: As part of Budget 2026, I am allocating €23.5 million, rising to €28.5 million when the €5 million vote transfer from the Department of Health is included, to significantly expand training capacity in key health and social care professions. This investment will support the creation of over 1,100 additional course places across medicine, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry,...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (16 Oct 2025)

James Lawless: My Department intends undertaking a Disabilities Demonstration Project aimed at identifying and developing the most effective supports for students with disabilities across the tertiary education system. The project will underpin the development of a policy framework focused on delivering a more flexible, responsive, and tailored model of support to better meet the diverse needs of these...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Grant Payments (16 Oct 2025)

James Lawless: As the Deputy may be aware, a review was commissioned into SUSI and the operation of the Student Grant Scheme in 2021 and Indecon published a report in February 2022. This report focused on structural changes to the Student Grant Scheme and a number of improvements were implemented on foot of the recommendations within the report. This improvements included positive changes to adjacent...