Results 10,601-10,620 of 45,510 for speaker:Simon Harris

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Ó Cathasaigh. On further education, it is not by accident that it is in the title. This Department was briefly, for about 24 hours, called the Department of higher education, research and innovation or something like that but it must be further and higher education and we need that to be seamless. On Brexit, my understanding is that the figure of 200 refers to those...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: There are three elements to the connectivity cost. We cannot just tell people to study online and leave them at it; we obviously need to support them. The first step is buying the hardware and the Deputy has acknowledged that spending. Approximately 17,000 laptops have been purchased and distributed. That has gone well but we need to continue to do more on that front, including in further...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: If the Deputy sends me the details, I will check it out.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: I genuinely acknowledge the amount of work done by the Deputy on literacy and adult literacy in particular. This is a major issue. All of us have personal experience in our families and communities of how this can be a real barrier to participation. When we talk about basic literacy, we are talking about people not being able to read a Panadol box. and in terms of basic numeracy, we are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: I do not wish to encroach on the space of the Minister for Education and Skills but as a member of the Government and somebody whose Department has a direct role in what happens after the leaving certificate examination, we may not disagree as much as the Deputy thinks in this regard. We might disagree on what we call it but the idea that we would not review and learn in relation to this...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: It is an important issue in relation to Covid. I do not know whether it is a good or a bad thing that the Minister with responsibility for further and higher education was a Minister for Health but I can assure students and staff that I will take a very cautious approach to the issue of on-site attendance in the interests of people’s health. I have met the unions and will be meeting...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: I thank the Senator. I want to make sure I say as clearly as the Senator did that there is a huge "Thank you and congratulations" due to the higher education sector. We in this room can and do call for things but the amount of graft that has been undertaken in the last week in particular and over the past few months, has been incredible and I want to acknowledge that. We are going to get...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: I will indeed.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: Yes, there is. I hope the HSE, as the employer, can show flexibility. There has to be a way. We are spending vast sums on this pandemic and there has to be a way, within that very large sum of additional money the Government has allocated for Covid costs to health, that this group of students can be supported.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: On the Erasmus+ question, I agree with the Deputy. I agree on the North-South point, too, but there is a great deal of work we need to do and it should be a large-scale ambition. When I was in the Department of Health, I saw the very significant collaboration that exists. Cancer patients from Donegal travel to Altnagelvin Area Hospital and sick children from Northern Ireland have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: The first point the Deputy made was an interesting one but I will revert to him on it in more detail so as not to delay the meeting. During the past week, we have been working to get additional places identified and people have been great in that regard, but the idea that there are caps on the numbers of people who can be taken into courses, given that there are shortages in the public...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: -----I am not sure how the circumstances would be resolved beyond what we have done.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: No, I do not.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: As the Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins, said, I would welcome thoughts and submissions from this committee. One of the things we are going to have to do is to look at the public sector; it cannot be a case of: "Do as I say, but not as I do." There is untapped potential for the public sector to do a lot more in terms of apprenticeships, and this issue was raised with me in the Seanad...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: I thank the Senator for highlighting this issue. I want to acknowledge the huge leadership shown by NUI Galway, along with UCC, particularly with the by-stander and active consent programmes. I am conscious that every time I put a spotlight on this issue, it is not to in any way take away from the very good work being done by some people within the institutions, but more to try to support...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: Well, there you go. I am relieved to hear the Senator sits on one. Through ministerial appointments, we have a chance to send a message about this issue, and we have to do so. We know about it now, and nobody can claim ignorance or say they did not know. There is a real issue here and we have a chance to resolve it. It is cultural, but it is also a matter of every parent in Ireland...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: I completely agree with the Senator. I would suggest to the Senator a technological university for Connacht-Ulster should be established. The Connacht-Ulster Alliance Consortium, CUAC, is the potential answer to that, because with that will come funding and scale, which we really need. The cross-Border piece, particularly in the north-west, when I look at the map of the island of Ireland,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy and appreciate him raising the issue because people do need hope. We focused a lot, quite rightly, on the impact of the pandemic on older people but I am not sure we have given the same voice, as the Deputy has, to the impact of the pandemic on younger people. Students studied for exams that never took place in respect of the leaving certificate; the final days and months...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: I think as a political system we have shirked our responsibilities on this for far too long. There is a sense of "is there anything to be said for another report?"; that seems to be the echo that comes from this place from all parties. Mr. Cassels did a very good body of work. An all-party committee met and decided to refer it for an economic evaluation. My predecessors have now commended...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: I am certainly not going to tell the Deputy about legal findings, rulings and the like. My understanding is this arises from a court ruling. This week the Department of Health, the Department of Justice and Equality and my Department are engaging. As I said earlier in this meeting, it is my preference that the operators step up and provide access to affordable insurance. Considerable...