Results 13,481-13,500 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Eligibility (6 Apr 2017)

Richard Bruton: As part of a comprehensive customer service and communications strategy provided by Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI), to ensure that all necessary avenues are open to applicants to receive the information they need, a dedicated email and phone line service is provided by SUSI for Oireachtas members. This was established to meet an identified need for applicants who choose to engage...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Consultancy Contracts Data (6 Apr 2017)

Richard Bruton: Details of all consultancy payments made by my Department for the years 2011 to 2015 inclusive are available on the Department's website www.education.ie/en/Publications/Corporate-Reports/Financial -Reports/Expenditure-on-Consultancy/. Information in relation to consultancy expenditure is compiled annually in respect of the previous year. Details in respect of consultants engaged in 2016 are...

Other Questions: Third Level Funding (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Bruton: I do not think there was a question in the Deputy's contribution. I appreciate people will have different views and suppose Peter Cassells put this out so that it would be seriously considered. It is important people consider the case as it is made. I have an open mind on it, as do others. Deputy Broughan criticised the increase in fees but part of Peter Cassells's vision is that there...

Other Questions: Third Level Funding (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Bruton: We need to do a bit of an evaluation, as do all parties. One should not decide that one's mind is made up before evaluating the issue, which is the danger with the Deputy's line of questioning. We need to consider any proposal on its merits. As the Deputy is aware, I have specific proposals for 2018. I have indicated already that I have received a commitment for a demographic increase....

Other Questions: School Accommodation (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Bruton: On the positive side, compared with a decade ago we have half the number of rented prefabs. However, we recognise this is an area we need to address. Obviously, there is pressure on the education capital budget to ensure there is provision for every child. We are going through a period where 20,000 additional places need to be delivered every year, which has absorbed the majority of the...

Other Questions: School Accommodation (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Bruton: We also need to look at it the other way round. That €25 million being spent on 950 prefabs would probably build one secondary school and one primary school. Switching that sort of a budget to building would not replace 950 prefabs. We are trying to strike a balance. We want to minimise the number, but in the short term a big population bulge requires flexible responses. In an...

Other Questions: Third Level Funding (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Bruton: I thank Deputy Broughan. Deputy Pringle earlier raised a rather similar question and I do not want to repeat myself. Peter Cassells chaired that expert group and looked at the pressure on higher education over the recent period where funding was effectively frozen and numbers increased. That has put the system under considerable strain. We are now considering how to establish a...

Other Questions: Institutes of Technology (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Bruton: The Institute of Technology Carlow already has a Wexford campus, based in Wexford Town, which offers an extensive range of award qualifications from level 6 through to postgraduate level 9 on the national framework of qualifications. My Department is also supportive of the proposed acquisition of a site in Wexford for development of the IT Carlow campus.  Funding has been...

Other Questions: Institutes of Technology (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Bruton: We have to look at what is the most effective way to develop regional strength. I regard human resource and talent development as core to the development of any region, including the south east. Any fair assessment would advise against creating myriad new institutions that do not have a solid foundation and cannot make a solid offering. This is from where the technological universities...

Other Questions: Institutes of Technology (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Bruton: We are offering joined-up thinking, while the Deputy is offering traditional pork barrel politics by asking for a university in every county. If we have small institutions that cannot deliver the service their regional base needs it will produce a second-class offering to the people, including in Wexford. I am trying to create a quality regional institution, a technological university, that...

Other Questions: School Accommodation (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Bruton: As the Deputy is aware, it is my intention to replace all purchased temporary accommodation with permanent accommodation, where the need is established, over the lifetime of my Department's capital programme, 2016 to 2021. To enable this development, my Department will carry out an assessment of the number of prefabs being used in schools to deliver the curriculum. This will also...

Other Questions: Third Level Funding (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Bruton: We are working on every issue that has been raised. We are looking at the employer mechanism, which obviously can be assessed by the committee, and the Exchequer mechanism. I am not sitting on my hands and waiting for the assessment work to be carried out. I am moving immediately because there is a crisis, and I am acting to deliver cash straight away, to put an employer's mechanism in...

Other Questions: Teachers' Professional Development (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Bruton: The network of education centres consists of 21 full-time and nine part-time centres.  Their principal activity is to facilitate the local delivery of national programmes of teacher professional development on behalf of my Department. They also organise a varied local programme of activities for teachers, school management and parents in response to demand. My Department is the main...

Other Questions: Teachers' Professional Development (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Bruton: Deputy Burton has raised a few issues. There is no doubt that this is a very important area. We need to look more deeply at its impact and at the quantity and quality, and that is why this review is being carried out. At the moment we have 206,000 CPD deliveries, which is up by 23% in the last four or five years. It includes substantial elements for new teachers, including induction under...

Other Questions: Teachers' Professional Development (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Bruton: The review is open-ended. It needs to look at best practice in the delivery of upskilling for teachers. At the moment it is divided into a number of education centres and it does not have a central directorate which would identify the direction we should take in the longer term. We need to ask if we need more central policy direction in this area. The education and training boards are a...

Other Questions: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Bruton: My Department's circular has set out details of the new model for allocating special education teachers to schools. The new special education teaching allocation provides a single unified allocation for schools, based on each school’s educational profile. No school, including the school to which the Deputy has referred, will lose supports as a result of the implementation of the new...

Other Questions: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Bruton: The model will provide for some additional provision in exceptional circumstances, where the school's new intake, in the case that the Deputy describes, is substantially different from the intake it had in the past. The school will have to demonstrate to the NCSE that this has been the case. The NCSE will work with the school to seek to resolve those issues. Additional hours may be made...

Other Questions: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Bruton: The complex needs aspect takes into account the four cohorts. There are four years from junior infants right up to second class. It looks at the complex needs profile of those schools. That complex needs profile is delivered to the school. For that to be dramatically wrong, the cohort leaving the school must have dramatically lower special education needs than the cohort joining the...

Other Questions: Third Level Funding (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Bruton: The Cassells report considers a number of potential funding options, including for deferred payment of student fees. It is currently being examined by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and Skills with a view to making recommendations on a long-term sustainable funding model for higher education. This process includes receiving input from relevant stakeholders. It will be...

Other Questions: Third Level Funding (5 Apr 2017)

Richard Bruton: No decision has been taken. We should prepare if it is intended to make a move. Part of the Cassells report is that, over the last number of years, the higher education sector grew by something like 25% with no increased State funding. The report is anticipating another 25% growth and recognises that doing nothing about this is not satisfactory. It outlines three sources of potential...