Results 17,521-17,540 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (24 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: Following a number of years of decline, registrations in the 27 existing apprenticeship trades are rising as the employment and economic situation improves. At the end of 2014, registrations were up 40% on 2013. In 2015 there were 3,153 registrations in the existing trades which represents a further 17% increase in registrations on 2014. SOLAS have informed me that registrations are...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (24 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: Recent years have seen an increase in the number of SNAs from 10,575 posts in 2011 to 12,040 to June 2016. In the same period the number of children accessing SNA support has grown from approximately 22,000 to some 30,000 by the end of 2015. The increase in SNA numbers has been supported by a very significant increase in the Budget for SNAs, rising from €332 million in 2011 to...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Energy Efficiency (24 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: I wish to advise the Deputy that my Department is at the forefront of design with respect to sustainable energy in school buildings and this performance has been recognised at both National and International level with sustainable energy awards for excellence in Design and Specification. My Department's Technical Guidance Documents (TGDs) set the benchmark for sustainable design in school...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: State Examinations (24 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: The State Examinations Commission has statutory responsibility for operational matters relating to the certificate examinations. The State Examinations Commission operates a scheme of Reasonable Accommodations in the Certificate Examinations. Full details of the scheme are available from their website: www.examinations.ie/candidates/reasonableaccommodations. In view of this I have forwarded...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education and Training Boards (24 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: The delivery of the new post-primary school referred to by the Deputy has been devolved to Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board (ETB) under a Service Level Agreement. A planning application was submitted to Limerick County Council by the ETB in January this year and the local authority has sought further information in relation to this application. The ETB and their Design...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Institutions (24 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 191 to 193, inclusive, together. In October 2015 my Department received a Protected Disclosure from a staff member at the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG). As outlined by the Deputy the disclosure makes a number of allegations in relation to wrongdoing at the University. The correspondence was referred to the Higher Education Authority (HEA)...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Placement (24 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: I am pleased to advise the Deputy that my Department, in conjunction with the Patron of one of the schools in Greystones, has recently approved the development of a second stream at the school. This approval facilitates enrolment of an additional Junior Infants class from September 2016 onwards and my Department has approved additional interim accommodation to cater for this development. ...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Funding (24 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: I am pleased to inform the Deputy that an approval letter outlining the terms and conditions of the grant in question will issue to the school this week.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: State Examinations (24 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: Currently the SEC operates a Scheme of Reasonable Accommodations at the Leaving and Junior Certificate examinations for candidates with special needs in the examinations. The Scheme applies to candidates who have a physical or medical disability, including visual and hearing impairments, or a specific learning difficulty (dyslexia is one such specific learning difficulty). All applications...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Provision (24 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: My Department uses a Geographical Information System (GIS) to identify where the pressure for school places across the country will arise. The GIS uses data from the Central Statistics Office, Ordnance Survey Ireland and the Department of Social Protection together with information from my Department's school databases. With this information, my Department carries out nationwide demographic...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Curriculum (24 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: The curriculum in second level schools meets an extensive range of needs in catering for the cognitive, emotional, imaginative, aesthetic, social, physical and moral development of students, and in preparing them for the demands of citizenship, lifelong learning and social and economic participation. The Social Personal and Health Education curriculum, which is currently mandatory for junior...

Other Questions: Teachers' Remuneration (19 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: The Government has committed to establishing a public service pay commission to examine pay levels across the public service, including the entry pay levels to which the Deputy refers. The Government recognises the importance of being able to attract quality new entrants to the public service, particularly so in important professional areas such as education. The restrictions in entry pay...

Other Questions: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (19 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: There is, of course, always pressure on resources but there is a provision in the admission to schools Bill that it will not be possible for any school to turn away a child on grounds of his or her special needs. That implies a commitment to support children in the schools to which they seek enrolment. The figures speak for themselves. There has been a huge expansion in support services to...

Other Questions: Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools Scheme (19 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: The action plan for educational inclusion, known as DEIS, was published in 2005 and now provides support to 836 schools serving a total of 169,500 pupils. There are 103,233 pupils in 646 schools at primary level and 66,237 students in 190 schools at secondary level. The DEIS programme has been implemented in partnership with schools and other Government Departments and agencies such as...

Other Questions: Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools Scheme (19 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: This is a valuable programme. Just before I came into the Chamber, I was reading some of the evaluation work that has been done on the programme regarding the impact on literacy and so on and clearly it is an area in which I have a very strong personal interest in trying to improve. When I was education spokesman previously, I focused particularly on early school leaving and disadvantage...

Other Questions: Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools Scheme (19 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: I accept what the Deputy said. There is a particular problem regarding children who are disadvantaged but who are not in DEIS schools and that is clearly one of the topics that has been signalled for specific review. That will be examined. Equally, as the Deputy said, there is scope to consider how effective the intervention measures are. It is important not only that we designate schools...

Other Questions: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (19 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: Support from the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, is available to every recognised primary and second-level school in Ireland. NEPS, in consultation with schools, prioritises children for support, consultation and-or assessment who have failed to make adequate progress despite an appropriate continuum of support being delivered for those children. Under its model of service,...

Other Questions: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (19 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: As we discussed earlier, we are approaching this in a number of ways and we are planning to increase the staff in NEPS by 25%. We are also considering the model of allocation of resource teachers to try to move away from the requirement to have these assessments for every child and to move to a situation where the school itself, having regard to the range of children, even those who have not...

Other Questions: Educational Reform (19 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: My ideas are only in development and I do not want to give personal views. We are committing to a charter for parents and we want to see a stronger complaints procedure. We also want to see schools developing the capacity to deal with these problems. I note that, under section 28, guidelines were to be put in place and agreed with schools for dealing with complaints, but section 28...

Other Questions: Educational Reform (19 May 2016)

Richard Bruton: As I understand the existing law, the Department does not have the power to instruct schools to follow a particular course of action in regard to individual complaint cases. The Deputy is referring to a gap where there is no appeals mechanism beyond the board of management. How to structure it is a matter that we will have to tease out in committee to see where such a role should fall, how...