Results 1,041-1,060 of 10,554 for speaker:Patrick O'Donovan

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Nursing Education (23 May 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: I do not agree there is any problem with foreign students coming into Irish universities. Plenty of Irish pharmacists, doctors and physiotherapists train in Scotland, Wales and England every year. This has been the case for some time. That is a good thing. I do not agree with that at all. The Deputy referred to it being underfunded. I accept that there is a figure to which we would...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Nursing Education (23 May 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: With regard to population, I take my statistics from the Central Statistics Office. I represent a rural constituency. The Deputy knows as well as I do that every district electoral division has experienced an increase in population. This cant that people are leaving the country is just not true.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Dental Services (23 May 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: The Department of further and higher education is working closely with the Department of Health to expand the healthcare workforce capacity of the country, including oral healthcare. The Department does not place a quota on the number of places on dental courses, and the number of places offered is therefore a matter for the higher education institutions in line with their autonomy. I...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Dental Services (23 May 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: It is important to point out that UCC has received substantial government investment in recent years under a capital programme. These would have been identified by UCC. With regard to the dental school, we have to go back to 2016 when it was announced that UCC had secured a loan from the European Investment Bank, including €37 million to build a new Cork university dental school,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (23 May 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: Fostering inclusion is a core pillar of future of further education: transforming learning, the national further education and training strategy 2020-24. It identifies the needs of people with disabilities as a primary focus, acknowledging the need for more consistent support for this group. Widening participation is also a national target under the strategic performance agreements for...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (23 May 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: They are practical questions. I will come back to the Deputy about them. Regarding toilets in public places, for a lot of places of learning, whether FETs, universities or ETBs, it depends on their ownership, but the building regulations apply to them. If they are public buildings, there is need to have regard to all users and all people's ability to be mobile, regardless of who they are...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (23 May 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: It is interesting that the Deputy has raised this issue. I had a discussion yesterday on the fact that if a child enters primary school, requires assistance and gets a special needs assistant, moves on to the second level system and has access to the same level of support and physical supports, whether sensory rooms or quiet spaces, that need does not stop when he or she transitions to third...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Nursing Education (23 May 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: I will answer the question regarding nursing and medicine first. Ensuring an appropriate pipeline of suitably qualified professionals in nursing and medicine is a key priority for me and my Department. I want to build on the progress made in the past few years in expanding the number of places in these disciplines. In 2020 and 2021, in response to particular circumstances relating to the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (23 May 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: It is important to point out as well that there was a devolved grant scheme, which was administered by SOLAS but came from the Department, of just over €8 million from which the Cavan and Monaghan ETB benefited to the tune of under €500,000. It is small money in the overall context, but it is certainly an awful lot of money when you are looking for it. It is a lot of money in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Artificial Intelligence (23 May 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: Ireland's national AI strategy, AI - Here for Good, launched in 2021, outlines how Ireland can be an international leader in the use of artificial intelligence to benefit the economy and society. The strategy is founded on three core principles, namely, adopting a human-centric approach to the application of AI, staying open and adaptable to new innovations and ensuring good governance to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Artificial Intelligence (23 May 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: I do not disagree with the Deputy, particularly in the context of the European Union's European Year of Skills and the volume of skills that either cannot be met or are under threat. AI has the best of both worlds. It is something to be embraced but it is also something to which we will have to adapt in our education system, particularly in further and higher education. I do not disagree...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Artificial Intelligence (23 May 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: I thank Deputies Stanton and Durkan for their inventions. Going back to what Deputy Bruton said regarding what happened at the committee with the consultancy firms, I will certain review it and have a look at it. However, "Yes" is the answer. Deputy Stanton referred to this being a fourth industrial revolution. The last time, we had the introduction of robotics and all of a sudden people...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Artificial Intelligence (23 May 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: That is fine.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Education Costs (23 May 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: I am sure Deputy Boyd Barrett would accept that we are on the one page on this issue. I never thought I would be on the same page as People Before Profit on anything but I imagine that the Deputy would subscribe to the idea that where resources are limited and finite, they should be targeted toward the people who need them most. Thus, it is on a means-based, targeted system, which is what...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Education Costs (23 May 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: All options will be on the table when I discuss this matter with the Ministers, Deputies Donohoe and McGrath. Regarding Deputy Boyd Barrett's comment about the 19th century, if we had a 19th-century approach to third level education, I would never have had the chance to go to university because I did not go to a private school. That is the reality. This country has been transformed through...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (23 May 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: I thank the Deputy for his warm words. In 2022, two new capital infrastructure programmes were launched to provide for significant investment in further education and training, FET. These programmes are the FET college of the future major projects fund and the strategic infrastructure upgrade fund. The college of the future major projects fund will support projects that can help drive...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (23 May 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: I agree with the Deputy. One of the statistics that bears testimony to what he is saying is that in a very short period, the budget for FET has grown from €5 million to €65 million. This comes from the creation of the Department, which was a commitment in the programme for Government. Let us be realistic, when all of this was part of the remit of the Department of Education,...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Student Accommodation (23 May 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: As the Deputy will be aware, the rent-a-room scheme is under the remit of the Minister for Finance, my colleague Deputy McGrath. However, I acknowledge that my Department and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage are the main users of the scheme. Therefore, I am very conscious of the need to safeguard our students in digs accommodations, which are typically more informal...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Student Accommodation (23 May 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: No. The Department will consider and will have regard to absolutely everything. One of the things we do not want to do, by virtue of the introduction of any measure, is for people are already participating in the scheme to feel threatened. In many cases these are retired people and will have to make a declaration of interests. I stayed in digs myself when I was in college and the person I...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Student Accommodation (23 May 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: Again, this is a matter in the first instance for the Minister for housing. I am sure there are very good elements in the Deputy's Bill and I am not saying there are not. I understand what the Deputy is saying. However, I would caution against the kind of narrative - I am not suggesting for one minute that Deputy Farrell is saying it - that digs are somehow a last resort. They should not...