Results 1,341-1,360 of 15,342 for speaker:Helen McEntee

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Funding (12 Feb 2025)

Helen McEntee: The school to which the Deputy refers submitted an application for funding under the Emergency Works Scheme (EWS) for life safety system works. This application was approved and payment of the approved works is currently being processed by the EWS team, once processed a school can generally expect to receive the funding within 10 working days.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teaching Council of Ireland (12 Feb 2025)

Helen McEntee: The Teaching Council registers teachers under the Teaching Council Act 2001-2015 and in line with the Teaching Council Registration Regulations, 2016. As set out in the Schedule of the Regulations, the Council registers teachers under five routes of registration: Route 1 - Primary, Route 2 - Post-primary, Route 3 - Further Education, Route 4 - Other and Route 5 - Student Teacher. The minimum...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (12 Feb 2025)

Helen McEntee: As previously advised, the purpose of my Department's School Transport Scheme is, having regard to available resources, to support the transport to and from school of children who reside remote from their nearest school. Bus Éireann endeavours to ensure that a reasonable level of transport service is provided for each eligible child. The School Transport Schemes are intended to cater...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (12 Feb 2025)

Helen McEntee: The school to which the deputy refers has submitted two applications for funding under the Emergency Works Scheme (EWS), one for mechanical and electrical (M&E) works, and one for roof works. It is important to note that the EWS operates on the basis of a minimal scope of works required to remedy an emergency situation, which is defined as a situation which poses an immediate risk...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (12 Feb 2025)

Helen McEntee: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year over 172,500 children, are transported daily in approximately 7,900 vehicles across 10,300 routes to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. These daily trips cover over 100 million kilometres. this figure includes over...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teaching Qualifications (11 Feb 2025)

Helen McEntee: Having been appointed Minister for Education and Youth in January 2025, I am now the cabinet minister with responsibility for government policy regarding the Professional Master of Education (PME) programmes.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (11 Feb 2025)

Helen McEntee: The Department of Education was successful in 2024 with an application for inclusion in the REPowerEU to develop and complete a Schools Energy Retrofit Pathfinder programme. This EU programme has very strict programme delivery funding timelines which must be met to enable funding drawdown. All selected school projects must proceed to construction phase in summer 2025 and thus has a range of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (11 Feb 2025)

Helen McEntee: I can confirm to the Deputy, that my Department currently does not have an Additional School Accommodation application (ASA) on hand from the school in question. Officials in my Department contacted the school in October 2024 and it was confirmed that the school authority is liaising with the County Council regarding the acquisition of land adjacent to the school. As both the school...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (11 Feb 2025)

Helen McEntee: The purpose of the Emergency Works Scheme (EWS) is to provide funding specifically for unforeseen emergencies. It does so by ensuring the availability of funding for urgent works to those schools that are in need of resources as a result of an emergency situation. An emergency is deemed to be a situation which poses an immediate risk to health, life, property or the environment, which is...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Equipment (11 Feb 2025)

Helen McEntee: The furniture and equipment (F and E) area within my Department deals with the provision of furniture and equipment across a number of different streams including the replacement of specialist F and E, to which the issue the deputy has raised refers. As part of the planning for the provision of F and E generally, there has to be a balance between the volume of demand, and the ability of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (11 Feb 2025)

Helen McEntee: I can confirm to the Deputy, that my department has received an application, under the Additional Schools Accommodation Scheme (ASA), from the school authority in question. The purpose of the ASA scheme is to ensure that essential mainstream and special education classroom accommodation is available to cater for pupils enrolled each year and where the need cannot be met by the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (11 Feb 2025)

Helen McEntee: As the Deputy may be aware, the purpose of the Summer Works Scheme (SWS) is to enable individual school authorities to undertake small-scale building works on a devolved basis and, ideally, can be carried out during the summer months or at other times that avoid disrupting the operation of the school. The SWS operates on a multi-annual basis for a number of categories and was last opened for...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (11 Feb 2025)

Helen McEntee: The school to which the Deputy refers was approved to enter the department’s pipeline of projects under the Additional School Accommodation Scheme. The project will provide 7 General Classrooms, 5 SET rooms, 2 Art rooms/2 Project stores, 1 Music room, 1 Multimedia room, 1 Textiles room and 2 classroom Special Education Needs (SEN) base. In addition, approval has been granted for two...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (11 Feb 2025)

Helen McEntee: I can confirm to the Deputy that officials in my Department engage with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage on a regular basis on all aspects relating the planning process and importance of the provision of school places in new and expanding sustainable communities. There has been a significant level of engagement between the two departments during the formation of the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teaching Qualifications (11 Feb 2025)

Helen McEntee: The Teaching Council registers teachers under the Teaching Council Act 2001-2015 and in line with the . As set out in the Schedule of the Regulations, the Council registers teachers under five routes of registration: Route 1 - Primary, Route 2 - Post-primary, Route 3 - Further Education, Route 4 - Other and Route 5 - Student Teacher. The registration requirements for each route are set out in...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education Welfare Service (11 Feb 2025)

Helen McEntee: Tusla Education Support Service (TESS) is under the remit of my Department. TESS operates under the Education (Welfare) Act, 2000, a piece of legislation that emphasises the promotion of school attendance, participation and retention. TESS has three strands namely the statutory Educational Welfare Service (EWS) and the two school support services the Home School Community Liaison (HSCL)...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education Policy (11 Feb 2025)

Helen McEntee: Schools have a role to play in supporting their students to develop the key skills and knowledge to enable them to make informed choices in different aspects of their lives. This is mainly done through the Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) programme, which is a mandatory part of the Primary and Junior Cycle curriculum. The SPHE specification provides vital opportunities for the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Grant Payments (11 Feb 2025)

Helen McEntee: My department recognises the importance of the Minor Works Grant to primary and special schools. Under Project Ireland 2040, a commitment was given that the Minor Works Grant would be paid in either December or January of the school year to all primary and special schools. In recent years my department’s approach has been to pay the Minor Works Grant to primary and special schools in...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (11 Feb 2025)

Helen McEntee: As the Deputy may be aware, the purpose of the Summer Works Scheme (SWS) is to enable individual school authorities to undertake small-scale building works on a devolved basis and, ideally, can be carried out during the summer months or at other times that avoid disrupting the operation of the school. The SWS operates on a multi-annual basis for a number of categories and was last opened for...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Ministerial Responsibilities (11 Feb 2025)

Helen McEntee: The brief that I received on my appointment as Minister for Education and Youth is currently being reviewed for publication and will be made available on my Department's website in the near future.