Results 81-100 of 604 for at speaker:Aisling Dolan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Consent Programmes in Irish Education: Discussion (7 Nov 2023)

Aisling Dolan: Well done. Well said. I thank the witnesses very much. Hopefully they will have an opportunity at the end to come back in again.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Public Service Performance Report 2022: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)

Aisling Dolan: I welcome the departmental officials and I thank them for their statements.. They are going through the performance report and they have highlighted quite a lot of different areas. I wish to go through a few issues with them. The Department is looking at school buildings and school places according to the national development plan. I have heard some of our representatives here talk...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Public Service Performance Report 2022: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)

Aisling Dolan: At what point does the Department talk to the school transport section when there is no additional accommodation and there is a need to have access to, say, a two-teacher school in a rural area?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Public Service Performance Report 2022: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)

Aisling Dolan: I thank Mr. O'Leary. I have one other point to raise with Ms Kirwan. I would love to invite her to see the really positive things that are happening in Ballinasloe. Our town is growing, with nearly 1,000 children in primary school and another 1,000 at post-primary level. Both of the secondary schools are 100 years old. Garbally College, the boys' school, and Ardscoil Mhuire, the girls'...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Public Service Performance Report 2022: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)

Aisling Dolan: How is it going to work practically? I deal with principals day in, day out who are at their wits' end trying to manage getting either emergency accommodation or repairs, dealing with summer schools and getting additional people in. On a project management level, how can this be streamlined? What are the Department's plans?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Public Service Performance Report 2022: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)

Aisling Dolan: I will be very brief, and Ms Kirwan might reply to us again separately. It is on counselling. It was mentioned in the report that there are no results because it started in 2023. At the moment, there is a pilot for seven counties around counselling in primary schools. What is the plan to expand that pilot? When is that going to happen? I do not know if the Department has time to respond...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Public Service Performance Report 2022: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)

Aisling Dolan: I thank everyone for coming to the meeting. It is amazing to think the Department of Higher and Further Education, Research, Innovation and Science has only been in existence for two years. It has been in place for three years but we have only had two years of the performance report we have before us. Well done to the officials. This is a brand-new organisation and Department. There is a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Public Service Performance Report 2022: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)

Aisling Dolan: In terms of the peer review funding, I do not want to see any impact to the existing programmes that are being run and how they are being run. With this plan over the next year to two years, how is the Department planning to ensure the minimum impact to existing peer review processes, funding and competitions that are out there at present, particularly for the stellar centres of excellence...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Public Service Performance Report 2022: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)

Aisling Dolan: ...is over its target as well in terms of women it is trying to target on to the different programmes on the apprenticeship side. I will talk about the role of ETBs here. In particular, I am looking at this from a Roscommon-Galway perspective. In our new constituency of Roscommon-Galway, we do not have a third level campus. Previously, we had Mountbellew, which was the third level campus...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Public Service Performance Report 2022: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)

Aisling Dolan: I believe that the process hopefully will be happening again. I thank Ms Miley very much. I appreciate that time might be short. I might come in later, Chair, if there is time at the end.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (18 Oct 2023)

Aisling Dolan: ...House, Josephine Kelly and Margaret Rogerson, represent Ahascragh-Fohenagh in County Galway. They are here because we were fundraising for a community centre in Ahascragh. People might remember that area was made famous by Seán Moncrieff in "Don’t Feed the Gondolas" way back when. This town does not have a community centre. Currently, the old hall is condemned. We are...

Seanad: Provision of Free HRT Treatment: Motion [Private Members] (18 Oct 2023)

Aisling Dolan: I welcome the Minister of State here today, and support Senator Pauline O'Reilly in her call around access for women to hormone replacement therapy. We have spoken on this before and had many discussions and debates. It was mentioned once about the word "menopause" being mentioned more times in this Chamber than in a lot of previous Seanadaí and Governments to date. We are openly...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (5 Oct 2023)

Aisling Dolan: It is important that we will be discussing the upcoming budget. People from Ballinasloe had an opportunity on “Morning Ireland” today to voice their concerns about the cost of living. People spoke about the importance of supports for college students and the challenges posed by rising costs. There was a young man in the solid fuel business who was trying to change his...

Seanad: Animal Health and Welfare (Dogs) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (5 Oct 2023)

Aisling Dolan: ...for bringing this forward. I grew up on a farm and around animals and I respect animals both large animals and small. I respect large animals because when you are in a field with a bull and cattle, you quickly understand that you are safe if you respect them. That is how you keep yourself safe. Farm safety has been a big thing. It s also a big thing within the Department and for the...

Seanad: Access to Third Level Places and Student Accommodation: Statements (4 Oct 2023)

Aisling Dolan: I welcome the Minister coming to the House to speak to us on the opportunities and places at third level. He recently announced funding of more than €5 million for the further education and training, FET, sector. That is topping up funding he issued in April into the FET sector. Under his watch in this new Department we have seen a phenomenal focus on the opportunities under further...

Seanad: Access to Third Level Places and Student Accommodation: Statements (4 Oct 2023)

Aisling Dolan: Not at all. They are very welcome. I will return to my points, which the Cathaoirleach will have to remind me of. I was speaking about the apprenticeship programme, which has 70 courses available. Those opportunities are so people can work for a period of time and get a qualification. The qualification can be a diploma, a degree, or can go the whole way to a PhD. We have that across so...

Seanad: Children's University Hospital Temple Street: Motion (4 Oct 2023)

Aisling Dolan: The Minister is welcome. He is here to deal with a very difficult subject. I acknowledge Senators Doherty and Seery Kearney, who worked with our group to put forward this Private Members' motion. It is crucial that the Minister sees that motion calls for action on the part of the HSE in the context of these families that are awaiting surgery. It really is about taking urgent action to...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (3 Oct 2023)

Aisling Dolan: I congratulate Katalin Karikó from Hungary and Drew Wiseman from the US who won the Nobel Prize for medicine for their work on the mRNA vaccines.I want to speak a little about the story behind this and about these two researchers who moved to the US and who fought for funding. They then worked at BioNTech SE. BioNTech SE is a couple from Türkiye who moved to Germany and were...

Seanad: Senior Cycle Reform: Statements (3 Oct 2023)

Aisling Dolan: I welcome the Minister to the House for this debate on senior cycle reform of the leaving certificate. Ireland ranks highly across the world in its educational attainment and the quality of education we deliver. We see this both at our post-primary, secondary school level but also at third level, which is fantastic. Ireland ranks high over the European average, even when it comes to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Current and Future Plans of the School Building Unit: Department of Education (3 Oct 2023)

Aisling Dolan: I welcome all of the officials from the Department of Education. It was great to hear the update from Mr. Loftus that the Department provides for "almost 1 million students and over 100,000 staff," which make us realise the mammoth task achieved by the Department. I acknowledge the speed with which additional accommodation is provided, as I have seen in my own area. I represent the...