Results 1-20 of 15,908 for speaker:Helen McEntee

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: School Facilities (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: As part of the Government’s ongoing commitment to supporting schools, I recently announced €65 million in minor works and ICT grants. This funding provides schools with flexibility to address small-scale infrastructure improvements and to invest in IT equipment and digital infrastructure. The minor works grant is provided on a standard flat rate plus a per capita basis. This...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: School Facilities (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: To clarify on ICT, we gave a commitment as part of the overall strategy that we would provide €200 million to schools over the lifetime of the strategy. What had been provided to date was two amounts of €50 million but they were not exactly every year so they were spaced out. I want to make sure that every year schools get the grant, that they know they are getting it and how...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: School Facilities (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: I want to stress that the Department is there and available to engage with schools. While we have seen an increase in the number of people coming to the FFSU it is not to the level that we are hearing more broadly. I encourage schools which may be in difficulty and having a challenging time ahead with their finances to engage with the Department. The DEIS grants and status mean that...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Educational Disadvantage (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: The DEIS programme is a key policy of the Department to tackle concentrated educational disadvantage at school level. The Tusla education support service, TESS, is under the remit of my Department and has three strands: the statutory Educational Welfare Service, EWS, the home school community liaison scheme and the school completion programme. These all work extremely well and support a...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Education Schemes (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: More broadly, I wish to highlight that the child poverty unit established by my former colleague and our former Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, is still there in the Department of the Taoiseach. We continue to work together to look at ways in which we can support the most vulnerable. The DEIS programme is key to that. It is not just the new DEIS plan but also the DEIS plus scheme we have...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Early School Leavers (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: The most recent figures available regarding school completion rates report on students who began their post-primary education in 2017. Of those students who entered first year in 2017, 90% sat the leaving certificate examination in 2022 or 2023. A total of 97.8% sat the junior certificate - now called the junior cycle - examination in 2020. While the latest retention rate to leaving...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Early School Leavers (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: I fully agree. Our youth services have such an important role to play in supporting those who are most at risk and in dealing with issues of attendance and providing that support outside of school hours. When we talk about formal education, our youth services are the informal side of that in so many instances. That is why I welcome that the area of youth has now come into the same...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Early School Leavers (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: In a lot of instances in the past, what happened with funding being provided was that we focused on specific projects because there had been specific needs in areas, whether they were related to drug abuse, crime, mental health or various different challenges that young people identified. What I want to ensure is that we are looking at the geographical spread. We know young people in rural...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: School Accommodation (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: If anything needs to be clarified with the school, we will make sure that is the case and where work needs to be done, we will ensure this is made clear to the school. What is happening now is that the assessment is taking place, but this is something that will have to be looked at as part of the 2026-2030 overall budget. We do not have that absolute figure at the moment, so my Department...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: School Accommodation (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: It has taken place-----

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: School Accommodation (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: Yes.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: School Accommodation (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: Looking at the budget we have, my priority is to do several things. First and foremost, it is to ensure we have the capacity for students starting school in September this year and beyond and that we are forward planning. We still have a growing school population. While we know it is levelling out, in primary school numbers, and particularly in certain areas in Dublin, these numbers are...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Education Schemes (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. Tackling educational disadvantage and, in particular, supporting students who are most at risk or in need of support to achieve their full potential is a priority for me, for the Minister of State and for this Government. The DEIS programme is a key policy of the Government to tackle concentrated educational disadvantage at school level....

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Education Schemes (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: I thank the Deputy and appreciate the example she outlined. I know in some situations there may be two schools next to each other where one is included in DEIS and the other is not. Siblings from the same household might even be going to both schools. Because of the way the DEIS programme is applied now, it is based on the population in the school and it is possible to have...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: School Accommodation (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: I am aware that my Department is in receipt of an application for capital funding under the additional school accommodation scheme from the school in question. The school applied in late 2024 for the additional school accommodation and for prefabs to be replaced. This is currently being assessed under the ASA scheme. This application seeks the replacement of accommodation that is 50 years...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Special Educational Needs (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: At the outset, I acknowledge the recent school visit. I was invited by the Deputy as well as Deputy Ó Muirí and others. It was important for me to visit the school. I have heard from the Deputies so often of the challenges the school faces but, in particular, how wonderful the school is. It was wonderful to meet with an príomhoide, Eimer Nic an Rí, agus all the staff...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Special Educational Needs (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: We have set out the timeline. As of yesterday, there is nothing to suggest there are any issues with the work under way between the design team, the school and my Department, which means, I believe, that come September, we will be able to issue the tender. From speaking to some of the teachers when I visited the school a few weeks ago, I know that is the biggest concern. They have got to...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Special Educational Needs (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: As I said, €405 million has been invested in Irish-medium schools in the past four years alone. It means there are now 248 Gaelscoileanna and 50 Gaelcholáistí across the country. I want to see that increase. Work is currently under way in my Department to develop a new policy on Irish-medium education. This is outside of the Gaeltachtaí. A policy for the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: School Curriculum (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: The significant body of work being done with the inclusion of the TUI, the ASTI and all the representative groups is to make sure we produce the best leaving certificate possible to support students in the best way. We are not introducing 100% additional assessment components. There will still be, for the vast majority, 60% of an exam, which is still stressful enough but obviously it is not...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: State Examinations (12 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: No, I do not. The Deputy said himself that teachers want leaving certificate reform. It is something they agree with. I point to the fact 73% of TUI members voted in favour of the measures. The ASTI and the TUI engaged very positively with my Department on this package of measures and asked for much of what is in this document. The vote was not on whether they support leaving certificate...