Results 9,981-10,000 of 19,968 for speaker:Norma Foley

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: Again I would say to Senator Mullen that there is a public consultation period. I invite people to share their thoughts and opinions. However, I am equally clear in saying to Senator Mullen that there will be a syllabus formulated from the public consultation process and out of what we know students need to have access to in terms of information. Schools will be obliged to follow the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: I thank the Chair.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: I thank the Chair and know it is an area of specific interest to him and the committee. I was very keen to progress it and conscious that this type of support is not available in primary schools at present. This €5 million gives us this opportunity and we have begun the work as to how it will be rolled out and how we will work it through and pilot it in primary schools with an...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: Yes. On the review of the 2013 action plan, the steering group, as the Chair is aware, is being led by Dr. Noel Purdey of Stranmillis University College in Antrim. There has been considerable consultation around this. As I did initially, I wish to acknowledge the enormous body of work it has done. There was a presentation on the thoughts and recommendations and the body of work the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: Please repeat the question. I did not hear it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: With regard to the Cork Life Centre, the key consideration in this review, which relates not only to that centre but to all such centres, is securing their sustainability. That will very much be the focus. The review will cover many of the issues Deputies Ó Laoghaire and O'Sullivan and many others have raised with me at different times. I acknowledge the considerable progress being...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: The Chairman is correct and I acknowledge his ongoing interest and that of the wider committee in Cork Life Centre. The centre asked for a number of clarifications regarding the report and I indicated we would look at all of them. They were taken on board and subsequently published and made available.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: The prompting of the Chair-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: As Senator Dolan said, we seem to have loads of reviews but they are all positive because they are all bodies of work that really need to be done. In terms of school transport, this committee knows well, as I know, the importance of ensuring we have maximum number of access points for students. There is a huge body of work here, similar to anti-bullying. There were thousands of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: I can confirm that this is part of the review. Regarding the cut-off point of 70 for school bus drivers, it is a policy decision of Bus Éireann. However, the company has informed us that it is kept under review.

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Schools Building Projects (11 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: I thank the Deputy for raising the matter. It gives me the opportunity to set out for the House the position with regard to the delivery of school building projects under the national development plan in Dublin Mid-West. 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 information...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: National Educational Psychological Service (11 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: I do not disagree with the value and importance of the work, as I have said. I think it is a positive that we can say that the high level working group, which is chaired by the Secretary General, underlining the importance that we in the Department place upon it, is looking at a whole variety of opportunities going forward. Among those is the decision that has been taken to sponsor a cohort...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Educational Disadvantage (11 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: As the Deputy is aware, the single biggest expansion of the DEIS programme was announced by me recently, with an investment of €17 million, increasing to €32 million next year. We are very conscious of the benefit of the DEIS programme. All analysis and studies on the programme show that it makes a considerable impact in our schools. We have grown it to such an extent that...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Educational Disadvantage (11 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: I appreciate the point the Deputy has made. As I have outlined already, there is a detailed paper on the refined DEIS model, which is available on gov.ie. At its core, it is about identifying concentrated levels of disadvantage. That is the nub of it. I accept that schools may be in close proximity to one another, but they do not necessarily have the same cohort of students....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Educational Disadvantage (11 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: I appreciate the Deputy's point that one school in an area may be awarded DEIS status and another may not. However, because it is about concentrated disadvantage, that will be the case unless the other school absolutely mirrors school that is awarded DEIS status in terms of the entire student population. Again, I reiterate that a detailed paper on the refined DEIS identification model is...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: School Transport (11 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: As the Deputy is aware, the school transport scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department. It is important to look at the figures. In the most recent school year, more than 121,400 children, including more than 15,500 children with special educational needs, were transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: School Transport (11 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: I acknowledge the Deputy's ongoing commitment to this issue. The scheme for the waiving of school transport fees was very clear in that it applied to those students who met the eligibility criteria. We have outlined those criteria, which are that pupils must live more than 3.2 km from their nearest primary school or 4.8 km from their nearest post-primary school or, to include the temporary...