Results 1,941-1,960 of 11,777 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: 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...

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 revert to the Deputy on that specific application from Ballyhaunis. There is to be a 115% increase in our capital allocation, which is a significant amount of funding. As I said in my remarks to the Chair and Deputy Alan Farrell, it is a matter of building and increasing capacity. That is exactly what we want to do.

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 give the committee a proper and exact analysis across the high-demand courses, including in respect of the point the Deputy raised. Medicine, veterinary, teaching and ICT were the high-demand areas. Again, the pressure in question will be faced this year.

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Work Permits (9 Feb 2022)

Niall Collins: 34. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will expedite the work permit application process for the haulage sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6914/22]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Apprenticeship Programmes (8 Feb 2022)

Niall Collins: I thank the Deputy for the question. The action plan for apprenticeships 2021-2025 sets out new ways of structuring, funding and promoting apprenticeships to make apprenticeships more accessible to employers and learners in order to achieve a target of 10,000 annual registrations across a wide range of programmes by 2025. Expanding apprenticeship across all sectors of the economy has...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Apprenticeship Programmes (8 Feb 2022)

Niall Collins: On the last point raised by Deputy Stanton, that is an issue which the Minister, Deputy Harris, and I have raised with the new director of the National Apprenticeship Office. It is something which is very much on its work programme. There is a dropout rate similar to that across all sectors, but it is something we are conscious and aware of. On the point raised by Deputy Smyth, the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Apprenticeship Programmes (8 Feb 2022)

Niall Collins: We discussed this earlier. Across 2021 and 2022, €37 million has been provided to address the significant backlog which arose due to the Covid pandemic and the restrictions that were imposed throughout various lockdowns that significantly impacted the off the job training available to apprentices. SOLAS and our ETBs are providing extra capacity and are hiring extra trainers. They...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Apprenticeship Programmes (8 Feb 2022)

Niall Collins: I thank the Deputy for her comments. In the initial reply I outlined to the Deputy that significant money had been applied to this issue and I believe she has acknowledged that. In total, across both this year and last year, €37 million will have been made available to address this issue. This includes a change in the structure of phase 2 off-the-job training which will facilitate a...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Apprenticeship Programmes (8 Feb 2022)

Niall Collins: With respect to the Deputy, that is total nonsense. To try to present a scenario that we are trying to accrue savings and not invest in apprenticeships or not reform the whole space is simply not the case, and the Deputy knows this. We have 62 apprenticeships up and running, as the Deputy is aware, and we have approximately another 20 in development and approximately another 15 expressions...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Apprenticeship Programmes (8 Feb 2022)

Niall Collins: I thank the Deputy for her question. The backlog in apprenticeship training to which reference was made results from the adverse impact of Covid public health restrictions on the operation of the education and training sector. In responding to these restrictions, it has been a priority to seek to facilitate, whenever possible, access to on-site teaching and learning for essential...