Results 11,421-11,440 of 20,049 for speaker:Norma Foley

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Tax Reliefs (24 May 2022)

Norma Foley: My Department provides funding to all recognised schools in the Free Education Scheme by way of per capita grants. The two main grants are the Capitation grant to cater for day to day running costs including heating, lighting etc. and the Ancillary grant to cater for the cost of employing ancillary services staff. These grants may be regarded as a common grant from which the Board of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Policies (24 May 2022)

Norma Foley: My Department has in place detailed design guidelines for primary and post primary school accommodation. These guidelines, are available on my Department's web-site at www.gov.ie/en/publication/7e515-technical-guidance-d ocuments. In primary schools, a mainstream classroom of 80m² in area is provided in the design of new school buildings and extensions to existing buildings. At...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Facilities (24 May 2022)

Norma Foley: The Department is not aware of any current application from the school referred to by the Deputy to source funding in order to upgrade to three phase ESB connection.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (24 May 2022)

Norma Foley: The Special Education Teaching (SET) allocation provides a single unified allocation for special educational support teaching needs to each school, based on each school’s educational profile. This model has replaced the previous model of allocating resource teaching support and learning support to schools based on a diagnosis of disability. The Special Education Teacher allocation,...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Child Abuse (24 May 2022)

Norma Foley: The abuse of children in any setting is a heinous crime and every effort should be made to bring the perpetrator to justice through the courts system.  All reports of abuse should be reported to the Gardaí who will investigate each reported abuse.   There is no time limit on the investigation of cases of historical abuse.  I wish to reassure the Deputy that my...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (24 May 2022)

Norma Foley: School Transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year over 121,400 children, including over 15,500 children with special educational needs, are transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country at a cost of over €289m in 2021. It should be noted that of the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Site Acquisitions (24 May 2022)

Norma Foley: As the Deputy is aware, a Minister-owned site has been identified as an option for potential redevelopment to accommodate a second school. Representatives of the existing school have agreed to collaborate with my Department to carry out a master plan study to assess the potential of developing a second school on the Minister-owned site. The outcome of the master plan study will determine the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: State Examinations (24 May 2022)

Norma Foley: The State Examinations Commission has statutory responsibility for operational matters relating to the certificate examinations.  In view of this I have forwarded your query to the State Examinations Commission for direct reply to you.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Educational Disadvantage (24 May 2022)

Norma Foley: DEIS - Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools is the main policy initiative of my Department to address educational disadvantage at school level. My Department will spend approximately €170million on supports for schools under the DEIS programme in 2022. In the region of €16.2 million was provided to primary and post primary schools in the form of a DEIS...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (24 May 2022)

Norma Foley: The State Examinations Commission has statutory responsibility for operational matters relating to the certificate examinations.   In view of this I have forwarded your question to the State Examinations Commission for direct reply to you.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Pupil-Teacher Ratio (24 May 2022)

Norma Foley: I propose to take Questions Nos. 371 and 372 together. Under the Programme for Government there is a commitment to seek to make further progress in reducing the pupil teacher ratios in primary schools.  At primary level, the annual staffing schedule determines the allocation of teachers to schools. The current allocation is on an average ratio of 1 classroom teacher for every...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Pupil-Teacher Ratio (24 May 2022)

Norma Foley: I can confirm to the Deputy, that the current estimated capital cost of providing additional classroom accommodation due to a one point reduction to the primary staffing schedule is currently €21.7 million. The Deputy should note that this estimate is based on my Department's published Basic Building Costs which set the construction cost of a typical primary school classroom...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Amalgamation (24 May 2022)

Norma Foley: I wish to advise the Deputy, that the decision-making authority for any amalgamation is the patron/trustees of the schools concerned and it is open to any patron to submit proposals to the Department for consideration. Any proposed change involves extensive consultation at local level and must be well planned and managed in a manner that accommodates the interests of students, parents,...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Data (24 May 2022)

Norma Foley: Please find below the requested information. The data is for the 2020-21 academic year the most recent year we have data available for. We will update the table as soon as the final enrolment data for 2021-2022 is published, end of June 2022. The Deputy will be aware that the general staffing schedule is based on a 25:1 ratio.   Academic Year 2020 - 2021 County ...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Data (24 May 2022)

Norma Foley: I can confirm to the Deputy, that the actual cost of constructing a classroom for a primary or post primary school can vary depending on a number of factors. These factors can include but are not limited to the following: the size and scope of the construction contract the classrooms are being constructed under; market conditions; site constraints; planning conditions; and procurement...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Capitation Grants (24 May 2022)

Norma Foley: My Department provides funding to recognised Primary and Post-Primary schools in the free education scheme by way of per capita grants. The two main grants are the Capitation grant to cater for day to day running costs such as heating, lighting, cleaning, insurance, general up-keep etc. and the Ancillary/School Services Support Fund (SSSF) to cater for the cost of employing ancillary services...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Textbooks (24 May 2022)

Norma Foley: My Department provides a book grant to all recognised primary and post primary schools within the Free Education Scheme in order to provide assistance for books including Book Rental Schemes. Under this scheme, my Department provided funding of €17.2 million in 2021 to all of these schools. Schools participating in my Department’s DEIS Programme receive an enhanced rate of book...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (24 May 2022)

Norma Foley: School Transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year over 121,400 children, including over 15,500 children with special educational needs, are transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country at a cost of over €289m in 2021. It should be noted that of the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Data (24 May 2022)

Norma Foley: There are 3,240 primary schools and 728 post-primary schools in the state. The above figures are taken from the 2021-2022 preliminary enrolment data which was published in December 2021. This will be replaced by the final enrolment data for 2021-2022 which we expect to publish end of June 2022. www.gov.ie/en/collection/primary-schools/www.gov. ie/en/collection/post-primary-schools/.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Data (24 May 2022)

Norma Foley: In order to inform my Department’s National Inventory of School Capacity, as part of the annual Schools Data Collection, schools have been asked to report the total number of classrooms within their existing accommodation.  These rooms may include general classrooms for mainstream education, classrooms being utilised to provide for pupils with special education needs, classrooms...