Results 101-120 of 33,696 for speaker:Simon Harris in 'Written Answers'

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (27 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: The Public Service Apprenticeship Plan was launched in August 2023. It is a key commitment under the Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025 and is called out as a public service transformation priority in the Public Service Agreement 2024-202, if ratified. The Plan outlines how to grow the number of annual apprenticeship registrations across the public service, including local authorities,...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (27 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: For the 25 Craft Apprenticeship programmes, the minimum rates of pay are determined by the industry sector to which the employer belongs. This ensures that all craft apprentices with a single employer are subject to a common set of gross wage norms. Gross wage norms are either agreed within the relevant sector or are set out in legally binding Sectoral Employment Orders (SEOs) recommended...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (27 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: Craft apprenticeship instructors are staff under the Career Grade pay scale. Set out at the link below is the Career Grade pay scale under the current Building Momentum public service pay agreement 2021-2023, and the previous Lansdowne Road public service pay agreement 2018-2020. If ratified, the proposed Public Service Agreement providing for increases of 10.25% over 2.5 years will...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (27 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: I propose to take Questions Nos. 648, 654, 655, 658 and 659 together. The tertiary education system plays a central role in ensuring that our graduates from higher education, further education and training and from apprenticeship are equipped with the essential skills, vocational, professional and transversal skills and competencies that will equip them for success in work. These skills...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (27 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: It is my Department’s priority to ensure the apprenticeship system is right-sized to deliver future demand for skilled tradespeople. Successful delivery of priority Government strategies such as the National Development Plan, Housing for All and the Climate Action Plan will require significant growth in our apprenticeship training capacity. Being demand-led in nature, there are no...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Research Funding (27 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: I propose to take Questions Nos. 650, 653, 656 and 657 together. The sciences and the broader research sector have a pivotal role to play in securing societal and economic benefits for all. My Department is providing leadership in this regard, in particular through the implementation of Ireland’s research and innovation strategy, Impact 2030 and through our engagement with the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Data Centres (27 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: My Department operates its IT infrastructure in cooperation with the Department of Education on a Shared Services basis. The Department of Education is the lead partner for the provision of IT services for both Departments and has advised that a number of robust processes and procedures are in place to enhance and protect the security of its data centres and these processes are reviewed on a...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (22 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: In the pre-2016 model, tiling registration numbers were too low to consider a specialised apprentice programme to be viable. However, I intend to meet the Tiling Association of Ireland shortly who are exploring the possibility of developing a new tiling apprenticeship under the consortium-led model.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Accommodation (22 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: Last month, I received Government approval for my Department's long-term student accommodation policy approach. The long term vision is to ensure that availability of student accommodation and digs do not act as a barrier to accessing higher education. This policy aims to enable options to mitigate demand for accommodation given the increased accessibility of HEIs across the regions through...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Public Sector Pensions (21 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: I remain strongly of the view that research staff in all higher education institutions across the sector should be able to access a public service pension scheme. As outlined in previous responses, my officials have submitted a business case to the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan and Reform to support access to the single public service pension scheme for those...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Fees (21 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: The Deputy will be aware that Higher Education Institutions are autonomous bodies; responsible for assessing student applications and determining the tuition fee payable by individual students. In this regard, as the Deputy will appreciate, it is not possible for my Department to offer guidance on the fee arrangements that may apply for individual students, such as those that may apply in the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Medical Research and Training (21 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: I propose to take Questions Nos. 180 and 181 together. As the Deputy is aware the delivery of medical programmes is complex. The course content of medical programmes and curriculum followed is a matter for the individual medical schools and the regulator, the Medical Council. The Medical Council sets and monitors standards for undergraduate, and postgraduate medical programmes and the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Accommodation (21 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien and I have asked our officials to engage on the decision of private student accommodation providers to move to 51-week leases. We recognise that while there may be a market for 51 week leases among some members of the student population, it is not desirable for the vast majority of third level students. We are working...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Ministerial Staff (20 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: The information in relation to the number of hours driven by each of the civilian drivers assigned to the Minister of State in 2023 is being collated and will be forwarded to the Deputy as soon as it becomes available. As previous advised to Deputy, I do not have any civilian drivers. Responsibility for provision of Ministerial transport and the specific arrangements relating to it are a...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Education (20 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: I propose to take Questions Nos. 642 and 643 together. Expanding the number of places available on Health and Social Care Profession (HSCP) programmes is a priority for my Department. In July 2023, Minister Donnelly and I announced over 400 additional permanent places across HSCP related programmes from September 2023. This included five places on the Radiation Therapy programme in...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Artificial Intelligence (20 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: My Department currently provides data and computing power to the research and academic community across many fields by funding the Irish Centre for High-End Computing as well as research and education bodies with their own computing facilities, and through membership of the European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking. The Irish Centre for High End Computing (ICHEC) provides...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Research and Development (20 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: Membership of the European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC) has directly benefited Irish SMEs. In particular EuroHPC has financially supported the SME Accelerator programme at the Irish Centre for High-End Computing under the European High-Performance Computing Competence Centre (EuroCC) initiative. EuroCC is an initiative by the Joint Undertaking to build a...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Research and Development (20 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: Membership of the European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC) has directly benefited the Irish research community. Working with Participating States, EuroHPC has built a world-leading ecosystem of supercomputers and related infrastructure in Europe. Through EuroHPC Ireland’s research community can access a number of world-class supercomputers far more powerful than...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Grant Payments (20 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: Only in exceptional cases can candidates who are under 23 be assessed without reference to their parents/guardians income or address, Article 21(3)(b) of the Student Grant Scheme refers. The assessment of a case of estrangement is carefully considered to ensure there is sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the exceptional circumstances pertaining in such cases genuinely exists. The...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (20 Feb 2024)

Simon Harris: The full list of craft apprenticeships, along with the latest taught version of the syllabus of each programme; the date it was first published; the date of last review by QQI, is attached. The information which was being collated by SOLAS is now available and is set out in the attached table. As you will note from the table, 15 of 25 craft programme syllabi have proposed roll-outs in 2024....