Results 141-160 of 16,184 for speaker:Helen McEntee

Committee on Education and Youth: Engagement with Minister for Education and Youth (18 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: I look forward to working with everybody on the committee in the years ahead. I thank the committee for the invitation to attend it to discuss a broad range of matters that are being advanced by my Department to meet challenges and support the delivery of a world-class education system, one that breaks down barriers and, more importantly, ensures every child has the opportunity to achieve...

Committee on Education and Youth: Engagement with Minister for Education and Youth (18 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: The Cathaoirleach is right. The last census was in 2022. The last time the scheme expanded was in 2022 when 100 schools were added to the scheme. The data was not available to the Department at the time. I hope that when we are developing a new DEIS scheme, we can look not just at what kind of resources are being provided to schools in the scheme but also at how we make sure it is as...

Committee on Education and Youth: Engagement with Minister for Education and Youth (18 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: Special schools receive a higher level of capitation than primary schools. There are different variations in special schools in terms of the curriculum, how it is applied and the students in the school. As capitation increases, it will naturally be possible to include capitation in our special schools as well but this is something that needs to be continuously kept under review. The reason...

Committee on Education and Youth: Engagement with Minister for Education and Youth (18 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: This is being revised at the moment. We are engaging with the ASTI and the TUI on it. It was part of the public sector pay agreement negotiated last year and part of the next stages in that overall agreement but that is something-----

Committee on Education and Youth: Engagement with Minister for Education and Youth (18 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: This is something that was agreed as part of the overall package and both unions signed up to it. What was part of that agreement was that how the hours are used would be looked at and how they would be reflected in that.

Committee on Education and Youth: Engagement with Minister for Education and Youth (18 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: This is about making it as public as possible. This is a new process. It started this year. The deadline this year was 1 February. It was extended slightly because of Storm Éowyn. It means that the NCSE has a clear picture of students who are known to it. I appreciate that there will always be students who do not have their diagnosis or who have not applied even this year. The...

Committee on Education and Youth: Engagement with Minister for Education and Youth (18 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: All of our 400 SENOs are aware of this and are engaging with the schools. Any person looking to talk to a school about enrolling his or her child should be informed of this by the principal and teachers in the school so this will be communicated through the SENOs as well.

Committee on Education and Youth: Engagement with Minister for Education and Youth (18 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: There is concern that children in a special school that is designated as mild will be removed or not have their place in the school. That will not be the case. No child will be removed from his or her school. Children with the greatest need are unable to access schools that are closest to them because of the narrower criteria. It is about making sure over time that special schools are...

Committee on Education and Youth: Engagement with Minister for Education and Youth (18 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: Having visited quite a number of schools and met with those working in the school completion programme, I think the work they do is invaluable, if not often seen or heard. For many children, the only reason they are still in school or are coming into school is these individuals, who have a very focused and targeted approach. My approach is that we need more of them, and that is something...

Committee on Education and Youth: Engagement with Minister for Education and Youth (18 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: In respect of the capitation, my ambition is to continue to increase this. It went from 183 during the 2023-24 school year to 200 last year and now, from September of this year, it has increased to 224 for primary. There is a commitment in the programme for Government that we will continue to increase that. As I mentioned earlier, although there are different views on this, in secondary...

Committee on Education and Youth: Engagement with Minister for Education and Youth (18 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: Yes.

Committee on Education and Youth: Engagement with Minister for Education and Youth (18 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: Every expert group or group recommended to be on it is on it, to be honest, so any of those recommendations would be made-----

Committee on Education and Youth: Engagement with Minister for Education and Youth (18 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: In terms of training, work is being done to ensure that for next September anybody who starts teacher training will have that mandatory placement in either a special education classroom or in a special school. It is extremely important that any of our new teachers get this training. On top of that, I confirmed in February that Atlantic Technological University, ATU, had been awarded a...

Committee on Education and Youth: Engagement with Minister for Education and Youth (18 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: Okay.

Committee on Education and Youth: Engagement with Minister for Education and Youth (18 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: I thank the Deputy for her questions. She is correct that the focus has really been on primary school places and ensuring we have that provision in place. The focus now needs not to move away from primary schools but to broaden ensure there is an enhanced focus on our secondary schools. This is why we are focused on targeting four classrooms per secondary school, which would include Athboy...

Committee on Education and Youth: Engagement with Minister for Education and Youth (18 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: Work is under way to examine how we best implement the recommendations of that review. The Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan, has designation for this but, obviously, we are working together in the Department. Regarding the scheme, we have given a commitment to increase the numbers by 100,000. It is currently at 173,000. We do that by expanding the criteria that have been set at...

Committee on Education and Youth: Engagement with Minister for Education and Youth (18 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: It depends on the number of students. There is a cut-off point. If that number is passed, the principal is entitled to a deputy principal or to become an administrative principal as opposed to a working principal. There is a structure and a system in which one can apply. Any changes would mean there would have to be a budgetary process, because by moving principals, we are potentially...

Committee on Education and Youth: Engagement with Minister for Education and Youth (18 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: Regarding the phone ban, for the most part we all agree on it, particularly in primary schools. It is not the case every child brings a phone into school but we are seeing younger and younger children with phones and on social media apps. There are implications that can arise from that but they are also distracting in schools. Regarding a legislative ban, it would be about implementing it....