Results 18,541-18,560 of 19,666 for speaker:Norma Foley

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (8 Sep 2020)

Norma Foley: School Transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the 2019/20 school year over 120,000 children, including over 14,200 children with special educational needs, were transported in over 5,000 vehicles on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country covering over 100 million kilometres at a cost of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teacher Training (8 Sep 2020)

Norma Foley: I can confirm that school placements will proceed in primary and post-primary schools in this school year. School Placement is a critical part of initial teacher education (ITE). It is first and foremost a space and time where student teachers learn to become teachers. It enables the student teacher to experience teaching and learning in a variety of contexts, and to participate in school...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (8 Sep 2020)

Norma Foley: Literacy and numeracy are among the most important life skills that our schools teach. Literacy and numeracy skills are crucial to a person’s ability to access the rest of the curriculum and to develop fully as an individual, to live a satisfying and rewarding life and to participate fully in our society. It is important therefore that children master these skills to the best of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Ministerial Advisers (8 Sep 2020)

Norma Foley: In accordance with the terms of the Public Service Management Act 1997 I will be appointing two Special Advisers at my Department to assist me in carrying out my ministerial functions.

Back to School, Further and Higher Education and Special Education: Statements (3 Sep 2020)

Norma Foley: I apologise. I thought I had 20 minutes.

Back to School, Further and Higher Education and Special Education: Statements (3 Sep 2020)

Norma Foley: I last spoke in this House immediately before it went in to recess. At that time I had just published the Roadmap for the Full Return to School. That was only five weeks ago and much has happened since then. An incredible amount of work has been undertaken in the school sector. As a country dealing with the challenges of Covid-19, we are in a different place now than then, but just as the...

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Covid-19: Review of the Reopening of Schools (Resumed) (2 Sep 2020)

Norma Foley: I thank the committee for the invitation to attend today in regard to the reopening of the schools sector. I am accompanied from the Department by Ms Deirdre Shanley, assistant secretary, Ms Aoife Conduit, assistant secretary, Mr. Dalton Tattan, assistant secretary, Dr. Harold Hislop, chief inspector, Ms Yvonne Keating, deputy chief inspector, and Mr. Eamonn Murtagh, director in the planning...

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Covid-19: Review of the Reopening of Schools (Resumed) (2 Sep 2020)

Norma Foley: Okay. Updated health advice from NPHET has an impact on the operation of post-primary school transport services. The Government decided that the arrangements made for primary school transport schemes will proceed as planned when schools reopen and these services will operate fully with additional measures in place, such as preassigned seating and additional hygiene and cleaning measures. ...

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Covid-19: Review of the Reopening of Schools (Resumed) (2 Sep 2020)

Norma Foley: In general, I wish to acknowledge the questions and the original points the Deputy has raised. On the question of whether schools will stay open and whether they will do so on a long-term basis, he has raised an important point. Experts, including our Chief Medical Officer, CMO, Professor Philip Nolan, and others have said that schools by their nature are essentially very safe places and...

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Covid-19: Review of the Reopening of Schools (Resumed) (2 Sep 2020)

Norma Foley: I will come specifically to the questions.

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Covid-19: Review of the Reopening of Schools (Resumed) (2 Sep 2020)

Norma Foley: However, I do want to make the point-----

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Covid-19: Review of the Reopening of Schools (Resumed) (2 Sep 2020)

Norma Foley: -----that there is a community responsibility in making our schools safe. It is hugely important we recognise that if the community wishes for our schools to stay open in the long term, the community must accept responsibility for supporting schools and the good work they do. We have had a number of engagements with the Department of Health and the HSE and, just some time ago, a...

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Covid-19: Review of the Reopening of Schools (Resumed) (2 Sep 2020)

Norma Foley: The issue the Deputy has raised is the specific case of parents or family members who are categorised as being at high risk. I absolutely appreciate the difficulties, the trauma and the worry for people who are in a situation of that nature. However my suggestion would be - and it is appropriate - that they would take guidance from their GP and discuss it in a medical context. The advice...

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Covid-19: Review of the Reopening of Schools (Resumed) (2 Sep 2020)

Norma Foley: To clarify, in our roadmap we are clear about the supports that are out there. We are clear that issues will arise with children or indeed parents being anxious about the return to school and we are clear about the supports that are there for that. As such, there is no absence of clarity but if there is an individual case the Deputy wishes to raise, I have no difficulty in looking at that...

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Covid-19: Review of the Reopening of Schools (Resumed) (2 Sep 2020)

Norma Foley: On school transport, the Deputy will be aware of the original advice from NPHET, which identified children as a single cohort in a controlled environment. That meant there was no requirement for social distancing other than for masks to be worn by second-level students on buses. The additional resources were made available for hand sanitiser, PPE for the bus driver, measures for cleaning...

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Covid-19: Review of the Reopening of Schools (Resumed) (2 Sep 2020)

Norma Foley: I thank the Deputy. I again acknowledge his appreciation of the work schools are undertaking on the ground to engage with and meet the needs of pupils as they arise. With regard to the specific question on the categories of high-risk and very high-risk school staff, in the first instance, adjudications on such cases are independent medical adjudications carried out by persons separate from...

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Covid-19: Review of the Reopening of Schools (Resumed) (2 Sep 2020)

Norma Foley: As the Deputy will be aware, the system is being run by Medmark and this is the information we have gleaned from Medmark to date. I emphasise that it is overseeing the system which is independent from the Department.

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Covid-19: Review of the Reopening of Schools (Resumed) (2 Sep 2020)

Norma Foley: The criteria being used are the criteria that have been adopted by the HSE across the public service, -----

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Covid-19: Review of the Reopening of Schools (Resumed) (2 Sep 2020)

Norma Foley: ----- including front-line health workers. They are the same criteria. We are not asking for an exception.

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Covid-19: Review of the Reopening of Schools (Resumed) (2 Sep 2020)

Norma Foley: We are asking for the same standard to be applied.