Results 1,581-1,600 of 19,412 for speaker:Norma Foley

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (25 Sep 2024)

Norma Foley: Caretakers are valued members of our school communities who carry out work vital to the operations of our schools. At present, the majority of primary and post-primary schools receive assistance to provide for caretaker services under ancillary grant funding. Under the February 2022 agreement the implementation of revised salary and annual leave entitlements for school secretaries is now...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Disadvantaged Status (25 Sep 2024)

Norma Foley: My department provides a wide range of supports to all schools, DEIS and non-DEIS, to support the inclusion of all students and address barriers to students achieving their potential. Supplementing the universal supports available to all schools, the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) Programme is a key policy initiative of my department to address concentrated educational...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Curriculum (25 Sep 2024)

Norma Foley: Apart from a small number of prescribed texts at post-primary level, determined by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), the decisions on which textbooks, programmes and resources, if any, to use in primary and post-primary schools are taken at school level. Any concerns regarding material published in textbooks should be raised with the publisher themselves. One of the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (25 Sep 2024)

Norma Foley: The large scale capital project at the school referred to by the Deputy is at an advanced stage of Architectural Planning Stage 3 – Tender Action and Award. The Supplementary Tender report is under review by my Department. Discussions are ongoing with the Design Team to assist in the completion of the review. When this process is complete and subject to no further issues arising,...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (25 Sep 2024)

Norma Foley: I can confirm to the Deputy, that my Department is in receipt of an application for the Additional Schools Accommodation (ASA) scheme, from the school in question for funding to reconfigure a classroom to accommodate a Special Education class. The main focus of the Department’s capital funding over the last decade and for the coming period is on provision of critical additional...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (25 Sep 2024)

Norma Foley: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the 2023/24 school year over 163,800 children, including over 136,000 pupils travelling on primary and post primary services, 20,200 pupils with special educational needs, and 7,400 pupils who have arrived to Ireland from Ukraine were transported on a daily basis to...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (25 Sep 2024)

Norma Foley: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the 2023/24 school year over 163,800 children, including over 136,000 pupils travelling on primary and post primary services, 20,200 pupils with special educational needs, and 7,400 pupils who have arrived to Ireland from Ukraine were transported on a daily basis to...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Admissions (24 Sep 2024)

Norma Foley: In relation to school admissions, it is the responsibility of the managerial authorities of all schools to implement an admissions policy in accordance with the Education Act, 1998 and the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018. Under the provisions of the Act, school admission policies are approved by the Patron, following consultation with staff and parents of children who are attending...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (24 Sep 2024)

Norma Foley: Cleaners are valued members of our school communities who carry out work vital to the operation of our schools. The majority of primary and post-primary schools receive assistance to provide for cleaning services under grant schemes. Where a school employs a staff member to support those functions those staff members are employees of the individual schools and as such responsibility for...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Facilities (24 Sep 2024)

Norma Foley: The school referred to by the Deputy was approved to enter the Department's pipeline of school buildings for a project to provide 2 Class SEN base unit. The project was devolved to the school authority for delivery. A school building project has four points within the design and delivery process where approval from the Department to move to the succeeding stage is mandatory. These...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Child Abuse (24 Sep 2024)

Norma Foley: A range of measures have been put in place to implement the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgement in the case referred to by the Deputy. These include the commencement of the Children First Act 2015 which provides for mandatory reporting by key professionals; Implementation of the Vetting Acts 2012 -2016 which set out statutory vetting requirements for persons working with...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Child Abuse (24 Sep 2024)

Norma Foley: I wish to advise the Deputy that the Residential Institutions Redress Act 2002 established the Residential Institutions Redress Board (RIRB) to make financial awards to people who, as children, were resident in specified institutions and who had injuries consistent with abuse suffered while resident in those institutions. The Redress Scheme remained open to applications for almost nine...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Administration (24 Sep 2024)

Norma Foley: My Department provides a payroll service to schools and acts on their instructions regarding the starting and cessation of salary for the teachers that they employ. The teacher referred to changed employments in mid-September which can result in delays to salary payments as payroll staff require notice from schools to affect change to salary. However, in this case, there will no disruption...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Facilities (24 Sep 2024)

Norma Foley: The project to which the Deputy refers has been devolved to the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA) for delivery as part of a programme of school building projects. The brief for the project is to provide a new build replacement school for a long-term projected enrolment of 1,000 pupils including a 4 class SEN base. Investment and expenditure on sports facilities is an element of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education and Training Boards (24 Sep 2024)

Norma Foley: ETBs were established in July 2013 under the provisions of the Education and Training Boards Act, 2013. This legislation which provided for the dissolution of the 33 VECs and their replacement with 16 ETBs marked the most significant legislative and structural reform of the education and training sector in the history of the State. This legislation does not allow for the establishment of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (24 Sep 2024)

Norma Foley: As the Deputy will be aware, the number of SNA posts allocated to a school in any individual school year is a matter for the Special Educational Needs Officer (SENO) and that function resides within the National Council for Special Education (NCSE). The number of standard SNA posts varies according to the requirements of each individual school population: these requirements will change from...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Textbooks (24 Sep 2024)

Norma Foley: As Minister for Education, I believe it is crucially important that children and young people are actively supported to access education in its fullest forms. This Government recognises that the cost of preparing children for school each September can be a cause of financial difficulty and worry for many Irish families. This is linked to ensuring that every child with special educational...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Public Sector Pay (24 Sep 2024)

Norma Foley: The criteria for the award of incremental credit are set out in the Department of Education’s Circulars 10/2001 for Primary teachers, 29/2007 and 29/2010 for Post-Primary teachers. The criteria for the award of incremental credit to recognised teachers was agreed under the auspices of the Teachers Conciliation Council (TCC). To qualify for an award of incremental credit, a...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (24 Sep 2024)

Norma Foley: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the 2023/24 school year over 163,800 children, including over 136,000 pupils travelling on primary and post primary services, 20,200 pupils with special educational needs, and 7,400 pupils who have arrived to Ireland from Ukraine were transported on a daily basis to...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (24 Sep 2024)

Norma Foley: The school to which the Deputy refers was approved to enter the department’s pipeline for a project under the Additional School Accommodation (ASA) Scheme. The project will provide five mainstream classrooms, one SET room and a two classroom Special Education Needs (SEN) base. The project was devolved to the school authority for delivery. My department received a stage 1 report in...