Results 1,921-1,940 of 11,766 for speaker:Niall Collins

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Niall Collins: I will come back to the Deputy on that one.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Niall Collins: Yes, I will check the details and revert.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Niall Collins: We will get the exact number for the Deputy. She will be aware that in the apprenticeship action plan we are setting a target to build 10,000 new registrations per annum until 2025. This is a target in the plan. We can supply these details afterwards to have them circulated to the committee. By way of information I will give an overview of where we are at. The total number of persons...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Niall Collins: I will repeat myself, and it is not for any reason other than it is a fact. An amount of €37 million was provided between last year and this year to clear the backlog. SOLAS and the education and training boards are hiring more trainers and building more capacity. It is a fact we have also increased the number of registrations coming into the system. I do not have available to me...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Niall Collins: The Deputy knows this but it is worth restating. The national apprenticeship office is kicking into gear. The director has been appointed. This will be a key focus of the office in terms of addressing the backlog and the point with regard to dropouts the Deputy has quite rightly raised. It was raised by another Deputy in the Dáil on Tuesday evening. This is something that will be on...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Niall Collins: That is what he said and that is the intention.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Niall Collins: To be helpful and to try to give the level of detail the Deputy is asking for, we can endeavour to give the information the Deputy is seeking with a month-by-month analysis.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Niall Collins: I cannot give the Deputy that number now. I will provide it to her.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Niall Collins: I will give an overview. The number of students in full-time higher education, which includes universities, technological universities, institutes of technology and other higher education colleges, in 2020 was 165,946. In 2014, it was 151,360. We can see the increase. The split between undergraduate and postgraduate, favouring undergraduate, is 85% to 15%. We have had a demographic...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Niall Collins: We will get that information. An important point to be made to the committee on the CAO, places and offerings is that the metric achieved last year was in line with that of previous years in that 50% of CAO applicants received their first preference and 80% of applicants received their first, second or third choice. That is a benchmark metric from before Covid. Management and delivery in...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Niall Collins: I thank the Deputy. Both issues are important. The Department takes them very seriously. The Minister, Deputy Harris, has really led in these areas. In 2021, €5 million was allocated to our higher education institutions to support student mental health and well-being. That builds on the €5 million provided in the previous year to enhance the capacity of the support...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Niall Collins: We are open to considering these matters. The initiatives are demand led in that demand can go up and down. We will not be found wanting in providing the required supports. Along with having provided supports through the student assistance fund, we have significantly ramped up student assistance funding. There is over €18 million for this year alone across all the higher education...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Niall Collins: I will give the Deputy an example. Yesterday evening, I was in the University of Limerick. Its student services office has in its student assistance fund more than €1 million, which is significant.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Niall Collins: As Deputy Farrell stated, the provision of trained workers is crucial to rolling out the retrofitting campaign. The sector is aware of the challenge. We are getting ourselves to a place to provide the training that will be required to produce the workers. As the Deputy rightly said, a training course can range from a number of days to a few weeks. There is a limited number of training...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Niall Collins: It is over four years.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Niall Collins: It is to allow the providers to provide the training centres. It is not just in retrofitting, although retrofitting courses will be part of it. In the ETB sector in particular, a lot of work has been going on in the background as the ETBs get ready for this. We have the nearly zero energy building, NZEB, centre in Wexford which is in the Chairman's constituency. We have provided funding...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Niall Collins: We will provide the committee with a note on that.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Niall Collins: We can provide that data to the committee and the Deputy.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Niall Collins: Absolutely, there is. As I alluded to in my comments to Deputy Alan Farrell, the Department will announce a capital investment call tomorrow. That will be available to the technological sector for any projects or proposals it may have for us. The Chairman will be aware that the different technological university projects are at different points in their journeys or transitions and that we...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 26 - Education (Revised)
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (10 Feb 2022)

Niall Collins: What the Chair has said with regard to student accommodation is true. There is great demand for it and we are addressing that. My colleague, the Minister, Deputy Harris, has spoken about this on a number of occasions. The technological university sector will be permitted to borrow to build student accommodation. That will happen. The Minister is in ongoing dialogue with the Minister for...