Results 15,901-15,920 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Site Acquisitions (12 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: For school planning purposes, my Department divides the country into 314 geographic areas known as school planning areas. These defined areas facilitate the orderly planning of school provision and accommodation needs. A number of these school planning areas cover Dublin City.  In Dublin City, as elsewhere, my Department is using a Geographical Information System to identify the areas...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Funding (12 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: There is no financial assistance available from my Department to cover the cost of completion of the Experienced Operator Programme. Support may be available from the Training Support Grant which is administered by the Department of Social Protection and is designed to fund quick access to short term training or related interventions for individual jobseekers who have identified work...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education Policy (12 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 18 and 19 together. Work is currently underway on the development of an Entrepreneurial Education Policy Statement.  It is the intention that the Policy Statement will cover the whole of the education and training system including primary and post primary schools. The new Entrepreneurship Education Guidelines for Schools will be be informed...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools Scheme (12 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 20 and 21 together. As the Deputy may be aware, a review of the DEIS programme is currently underway and, as I have recently announced, a New Action Plan Educational Inclusion will be published before the end of this year. The review is looking at all aspects of DEIS, including the range and impact of different elements of the School Support Programme,...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (12 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: The Deputy will be aware that this Government is committed to ensuring that all children with Special Educational Needs, including those with autism, can have access to an education appropriate to their needs, preferably in school settings through the primary and post primary school network. Such placements facilitate access to individualised education programmes which may draw from a...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (11 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: The National Council for Special Education (NCSE), which is an independent statutory agency, is responsible, through its network of Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), for processing applications from schools for special educational needs supports, including SNA support. The NCSE allocates SNA support to schools in accordance with the criteria set out in my Department's Circular...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (11 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: The Deputy will be aware that this Government is committed to ensuring that all children with Special Educational Needs, including those with autism, can have access to an education appropriate to their needs, preferably in school settings through the primary and post primary school network. Such placements facilitate access to individualised education programmes which may draw from a range...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (11 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: Budget 2016 provided an improved staffing allocation to second level schools for the purpose of enhancing guidance provision. This improvement took effect last month. It brought the basis of allocation from 19:1 to 18.7:1 for the 2016/17 school year. The improvement of 0.3 in PTR allocation was a restoration of 50% of the teaching resources that were removed when the allocation of guidance...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Youth Guarantee (11 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: The Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) is a European Union financial package to co-finance measures implemented by Member States to tackle youth unemployment and to assist the implementation of the Youth Guarantee. The YEI is integrated into European Social Fund programming and is being delivered in Ireland as a dedicated priority axis within the ESF Programme for Employability,...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further Education and Training Programmes (11 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: Female participation in further education and training is generally strong with more women than men enrolling on many of the full time programmes, including traineeships and Post Leaving Certificate programmes. The situation on apprenticeship, as set out below, is different.  Female participation is also strong in higher education, although there are specific issues in the STEM area,...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: National Educational Psychological Service (11 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: My Department’s National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) provides an educational psychological service to all primary and post primary schools through an assigned NEPS psychologist and in some cases through the Scheme for Commissioning Psychological Assessments (SCPA), full details of which are in the NEPS section of my Department's website. Under this scheme schools can...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Services Staff (11 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: The majority of primary and voluntary secondary schools in the Free Education Scheme receive capitation grant assistance to provide for caretaking, cleaning and/or secretarial services. Within the capitation grant schemes, it is a matter for each individual school to decide how best to apply the grant funding to suit its particular needs and the Department does not stipulate how such...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (11 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: I can confirm that my Department received a revised proposal for funding towards the works in question in the school to which the Deputy refers. I am pleased to inform the Deputy that these works have now been approved and this decision has recently been conveyed to the school authority.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Higher Education Schemes (11 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: The independent review on the barriers to lone parents accessing higher education is currently being finalised. This is a complex policy area that involves three Government Departments. Given the complexity of the issues involved, it is now expected that the review will be completed in Q4 2016. However, the review is sufficiently progressed to inform relevant budgetary discussions...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teachers' Professional Development (11 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: To date, continuing professional development support for newly appointed school principals has been provided through Department funded teacher support services as well as through representative professional bodies including the Irish Primary Principals' Network (IPPN) and the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (PD).   The new Centre for...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teachers' Professional Development (11 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: Overall Statistics on CPD Units provided: Year 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Attendance 146,862 122,385 130,679 129,702 167,939 170,719 183,061

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teachers' Professional Development (11 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: By way of background I would inform the Deputy that the Incredible Years Teacher Classroom Management Programme (IY TCM)focuses on strengthening those teacher classroom management strategies which have been shown to promote children’s social, emotional and academic competence and foster positive teacher-parent relationships. The IY TCM programme addresses multiple school risk factors...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Minor Works Scheme (11 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: The normal practice is for the Minor Works Grant to be announced late in the year if funding permits. The issue of the Minor Works Grant 2016/2017 will be considered in the context of my Department's overall capital position later this year.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Services Staff (11 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: The Boards of Management of schools are responsible for the employment of school secretaries and it is a matter for each school to determine the level of secretarial needs required for the school. Funding to cater for these needs is made available from my Department under two separate schemes. One is the 1978/79 scheme under which the school secretaries are paid directly through the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Services Staff (11 Oct 2016)

Richard Bruton: A scheme was initiated in 1978 for the employment of Clerical Officers in primary and secondary schools. While a small number of these staff remain in schools, the schemes are being phased out and have been superseded by a more extensive capitation grant scheme. The majority of primary and voluntary secondary schools in the Free Education Scheme now receive capitation grant assistance to...