Results 12,881-12,900 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Enrolments (17 May 2017)

Richard Bruton: My Department is aware that there have been some enrolment issues in the Swords school planning area for September 2017. In that context my Department is in ongoing direct contact with primary schools in the area in respect of their junior infant capacity. As the Deputy may be aware, there are 13 primary schools in the area referred to of which 11 schools enroll...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teachers' Remuneration (17 May 2017)

Richard Bruton: As a consequence of the financial crisis, there was a need to enact a number of measures to reduce public expenditure so as to stabilise the country's public finances. A previous Government reduced the salaries and allowances payable to all new entrants to public service recruitment grades by 10% with effect from 1 January 2011. This decision also required that such new entrants would start...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation Provision (17 May 2017)

Richard Bruton: I can confirm to the Deputy that my Department received an application from the school referred to for additional accommodation to provide classrooms, specialist rooms and ancillary accommodation. The process of assessing the application is currently being finalised and my Department will be in contact with the school authority in the matter shortly.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Support Schemes (17 May 2017)

Richard Bruton: The statutory provisions regarding “progression” are set out in the Student Support Act 2011 and secondary legislation in respect of Student Grant Scheme and Student Support Regulations. Any amendment regarding of the application of the rules around “progression” would require an amendment to the Student Support Act 2011 and the associated secondary...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Staff Data (17 May 2017)

Richard Bruton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 141 and 142 together. The number of staff employed through agencies under the Department of Education and Skills on the 31st March 2017 are outlined in the following table. PUBLIC SECTOR NUMBERS RETURNS - END Q1 2017 - - Q1  2017 Non Commercial State Agencies* A11.7 Educational Research Centre - Pay 30 A14.1 PDST Technology in Education (NCTE)...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Contracts Data (17 May 2017)

Richard Bruton: The Department of Education & Skills utilises the services of the Public Appointments Service (PAS) which was established under the terms of the Public Services Management Act 2004 and is mandated to recruit staff to the Civil Service. In relation to top level management positions competitions for these are conducted by the Committee on Top Level Appointments in the Civil Service...

Equal Participation in Schools Bill 2016: Second Stage [Private Members] (16 May 2017)

Richard Bruton: The House could then make a decision in a way that is fair and respectful of all the various traditions here. I wish to correct a few things Deputy Coppinger said. The reason the Catholic Church was successful in some of the competitions for new patrons was that it reflected parental choice, which was the criterion used in those selection processes. Where a religious patron was...

Equal Participation in Schools Bill 2016: Second Stage [Private Members] (16 May 2017)

Richard Bruton: It is also worth reflecting on the mix of those schools. In every case at primary level, it was a non-denominational school under the patronage of either Educate Together, Foras Pátrúnachta, an ETB or other multidenominational patron. Each of the 31 new schools in the last couple of years was non-denominational. As such, there is no big conspiracy to prevent the emergence of...

Equal Participation in Schools Bill 2016: Second Stage [Private Members] (16 May 2017)

Richard Bruton: I move amendment No. 1:To delete all words after “That” and substitute the following:“Dáil Éireann, while supporting the principle that change is needed in relation to the role of religion in school admissions, declines to give the Equal Participation in Schools Bill 2016 a Second Reading for the following reasons:(a) Dáil Éireann last June agreed that...

Topical Issue Debate: School Enrolments (16 May 2017)

Richard Bruton: I asked directly this question of my officials, in other words whether Holy Family junior national school can be expanded, and they answered directly it is maxed out in terms of the existing accommodation, permanent and temporary, and the current devolved grant development is to replace existing prefab accommodation. That will leave the site constricted. Also, any development of the junior...

Topical Issue Debate: School Enrolments (16 May 2017)

Richard Bruton: I thank Deputy Louise O'Reilly for raising this issue again and I understand the concern. There are 11 schools in the Swords area which enrol junior infants and they run across the spectrum from Catholic schools, one Gaelscoil, Educate Together and a Church of Ireland school. The basic problem here is that the Holy Family junior national school is maxed out and cannot take in additional...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2017 (Resumed)
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Revised) (16 May 2017)

Richard Bruton: The delivery of the Regional Skills Fora is through the mainstream providers, so it is still the education and training boards, the institutes of technology or the colleges which provide. The Regional Skills Fora is a move to establish more clearly what needs there are, to create a greater connection and to develop programmes through partnerships with local enterprise. There are some very...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2017 (Resumed)
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Revised) (16 May 2017)

Richard Bruton: Each year the allocation from the National Training Fund goes predominantly into the SOLAS budget, as well as funding other activities such as Springboard. We are currently discussing increasing the contribution to the training fund from 0.7% to 1%, which would provide additional money that would, in turn, be deployed to contribute to higher education and to apprenticeships. While the fund...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2017 (Resumed)
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Revised) (16 May 2017)

Richard Bruton: There are a number of questions there. This year, for the first year in about ten years, we have increased the funding to higher education. We have recognised that a funding deficit had built up over a number of years. There had been virtually no new funding for a decade, along with a declining amount of Exchequer funding which was partly compensated by rising student grants over an...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2017 (Resumed)
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Revised) (16 May 2017)

Richard Bruton: Yes, there are 12,000. Obviously, the hope and expectation is to protect the common travel area which would leave their studies uninterrupted. It is also the ambition of the British colleges to leave them uninterrupted, but the Chairman is right, and this is a contingency we have been looking at.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2017 (Resumed)
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Revised) (16 May 2017)

Richard Bruton: The pay percentage is 71%. It is €697 million out of €979 million. On the implementation of the Cush report, there are issues but it has been agreed and we are undertaking a check throughout the various institutes to make sure the agreement is being implemented. It has been raised by some of the trade unions that there are some shortcomings in its implementation, and we are...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2017 (Resumed)
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Revised) (16 May 2017)

Richard Bruton: To take up Deputy Nolan's point, that reduction is not due to a reduction in training. It is because the Church of Ireland College of Education, which had been separately funded, is now funded through DCU due to its incorporation there, in that it has merged into a new college operating out of St. Patrick's as part of DCU. I will get the figures for the Deputy but, to my knowledge, there is...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2017 (Resumed)
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Revised) (16 May 2017)

Richard Bruton: There is no doubt that land costs are an issue. As members can imagine, land costs fell off and even halved at one point in 2013, but they have increased substantially since then. This is taking up a little more than one twentieth of the budget but that figure is rising and it can wax and wane, depending on the year. Obviously, Harold's Cross is an especially expensive area of the city in...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2017 (Resumed)
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Revised) (16 May 2017)

Richard Bruton: No, it is site purchases-----

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2017 (Resumed)
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Revised) (16 May 2017)

Richard Bruton: That is one particular transaction but, overall, we are not talking about-----