Results 141-160 of 6,210 for speaker:James Lawless

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: Three institutions are currently the subject of Section 64 reviews by the Higher Education Authority under the HEA Act 2022. TU Dublin availed of Section 142 of the HEA Act 2022 whereby the HEA provided assistance to the university following a request in writing from the President. Section 142(2) provides for the appointment of a body to provide advice or assistance to an institution and...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Functions (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: I can confirm the former Higher Education Policy and Reform unit has been split, as planned, into two units. These new business units are Higher Education Policy: Learners and Skills, and Higher Education: Systems Policy and Reform.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: The National Access Plan (NAP) 2022-2028 sets out our ambitions for an inclusive, diverse Higher Education sector. The NAP targets and supports students who are socioeconomically disadvantaged, students with disabilities and students from the Traveller and Roma communities. The Programme for Access to Higher Education (PATH) are the funding streams which have been put in place to support...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: I propose to take Questions Nos. 879 and 880 together. It is my intention to initiate the disability demonstration project this year which will seek to inform the development of a policy framework on the design and implementation of a more flexible, responsive, tailored model of supports for students with disabilities during their educational journey. The project will consider transitions...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Admissions (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: The National Access Plan (NAP) commits to undertaking a mid-term review in 2025 to assess progress to date in the implementation of the NAP and to identify priorities for the second phase of implementation. The Mid-term Progress Review of the NAP recently commenced, following the appointment by the HEA of independent consultants with expertise in the areas of widening participation and...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: Reply not received from Department.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: My Department recognises the need to offer support for more flexible forms of learning and last year, for the first time, a new Part-Time Fee Scheme for Specified Undergraduate Courses was introduced. This Scheme provides fee support to eligible part-time students attending specified publicly funded undergraduate courses leading to a major award. This includes specified in person and...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Technological Universities (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: I propose to take Questions Nos. 885, 887 and 891 together. I propose to take questions, PQs 27318 , 27320, and 27357, together. I wish to begin by stating that my Department continues to support all five Technological Universities, in line with our commitments towards the sector under the Programme for Government. Advancing Technological University Reforms To support the ongoing...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Further and Higher Education (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: Reply not received from Department.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education and Training Provision (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: Addressing workforce planning needs for the public sector in a sustainable manner requires a whole of government approach. In recent years over 1,000 places have been added to programmes of acute skills shortage, particularly in the health and social care disciplines. At the request of my Department, the Higher Education Authority (HEA) has run two Expression of Interest (EoI) processes...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Functions (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: Officials within my Department have recently taken on a number of corporate and sectoral governance responsibilities as part of the Transfer of Functions from the Department of Education to DFHERIS. The following transfer of sectoral governance responsibilities began in Q4 2024:The Compliance Assurance Return - Corporate Services assists in providing the Accounting Officer with an...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Functions (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: My department is leading on a number of initiatives to address the skills gap in construction under Housing for All. "" is a social media campaign designed both to change the perception of the construction sector from the narrow lens of 'on-site' to the opportunities that exist through MMC (Modern Methods of Construction) and other advances; and to end the stereotype that the sector is...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Staff (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: The report produced by the Department of Education in 2022 [Review of the awarding of professional added years by the University of Limerick during the period 2011-2017 and of the admission of two senior subsidiary company staff into the University of Limerick Pension Scheme] follows a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) in 2018. The C&AG report had highlighted...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Offices (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: The relocation of all staff currently based in No. 52 St. Stephen's Green to Ely Place is scheduled to take place in January 2026. This move will facilitate the commencement of upgrade works in No. 52 St. Stephen's Green, which are expected to last approximately 12 months.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: State Bodies (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: The Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies (as amended) is the central rule book for the governance, oversight and monitoring of state bodies, including aegis bodies under the remit of my Department. My officials monitor the operation and governance of aegis bodies on an ongoing basis and the Corporate Division of my Department has recently taken over sectoral governance...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education and Training Provision (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: My officials are working closely with the Department of Health to expand the healthcare workforce capacity of the country, and to create more opportunities for students who wish to pursue these professions, including in dentistry and oral healthcare. A list of all first year enrolments, by nationality, is in the attached document provided by the Higher Education Authority (HEA). The...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Cybersecurity Policy (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: Thank you Deputy for your question about the cyber-attack experienced at Munster Technological University. I would like to start by bringing the Deputies attention to the fact that the cyber-attack occurred in February 2023 and not September 2024. For context I have provided below a brief overview of the incident followed by a breakdown of the €3.5m costs. MTU’s Cork...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Technological Universities (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: Technological University Dublin's (TU Dublin) audited financial statements for the 2022/2023 academic year ending 31/08/2023 were signed by the C&AG on 23rd December 2024 and showed a deficit of €8.4m for 2022/23 with a deficit in the prior period of account of €3.8m. TU Dublin's financial statements for the most recent academic year 2023/24 are yet to be received by...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Technological Universities (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: The issue of a bad debt provision was raised in the financial statements of Atlantic Technological University (ATU) for the year ending 31st August 2023. The financial statements disclosed that the University provided for a bad debt of €371,000, in relation to patents and license fees due from a company in which it had a minority shareholding and which has subsequently gone into...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education and Training Boards (27 May 2025)

James Lawless: Louth Meath ETB (LMETB) is currently being supported by SOLAS in developing its Preliminary Business Case (PBC) proposal for Dunboyne under the FET College of the Future Major Projects fund and have met as recently as this month. The proposal put forward by LMETB relates to the development of a new fit for purpose facility on a green field site in Dunboyne, to replace the existing rented...