Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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125. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will outline his engagement with the Minister for Health to increase the number of graduates from clinical therapies, including but not limited to, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech and language therapy, and psychology, to address shortages in disability services. [59577/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Programme for Government commits the Department of Health to working with the education sectors, regulators, and professional bodies to improve the availability of health professionals and reform their training to support integrated care across the entire health service, including in relation to disability services.

Significant engagement is ongoing between my Department, the Department of Health, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, and the Department of Education to develop a joined-up approach to meet system level demand in therapeutic disciplines.

Health and social care programmes are by their nature complex in delivery. The availability of appropriate placements and placement supports is a key enabler of expansion. A working group, including representation from the Department of Health, HSE and CORU, as well as the higher education sector, has been established to specifically examine how placements can be secured to facilitate greater numbers of training places.

My Department was also represented on the interdepartmental Working Group which was tasked with developing an Action Plan for Disability Services for the 2022-2025 period. This is expected to be published before the end of the year.

My Department is strongly committed to supporting the health of the population through the provision of graduates with the key competencies and skills to be effective in the health workforce and support a range of clinical teams in our health services.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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126. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the steps that he is taking to provide supports for part-time students; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59805/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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At present, the student grant scheme is targeted at full-time students. Courses that are part-time, less than two years in duration, are conducted online or as distance courses or which lead to a special purpose or distance award are not currently approved for the purposes of the Student Grant Scheme.

However, I have been consistent in my position that we need to develop our student support system over time to ensure that it supports more flexible forms of learning. This will particularly benefit more disadvantaged learners, as recognised in the National Access Plan.

With this in mind, the review of the Student Grant Scheme, which I published earlier this year contains a recommendation that the Government, over the long term, should consider extending supports to more flexible forms of learning including blended/online and part-time. The Review, however, noted the complexity of the issue at national and institutional level, as well as the potential for increased costs to arise, and identified the need for careful planning to take place.

Implementation of the review of the Student Grant scheme is being undertaken within the context of Funding the Future, which is the Government's overall response to future funding of higher education and student support.

I have established a steering group which I chair alongside Professor Anne Looney and Professor Tom Collins, which is supported by two working groups comprising representatives of institutions, students, trade unions and employer groups.

The working group focused on skills, participation and cost is currently examining the potential to support students to avail of more flexible learning opportunities.

I would expect that this working group will update me on their consideration of these and other relevant issues in the coming months. Having regard to this initial assessment, my Department will then examine whether there are areas where any early progress can be made during the course of 2023, particularly with respect to supporting disadvantaged and under-represented learners.

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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127. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will detail the plans in relation to facilitating those with disabilities and special needs to access further and higher education; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59173/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The new National Access Plan which was launched in August aims to support inclusion and diversity in our student body while addressing the wider challenges faced by students.

Students with disabilities will continue to be a priority group in the new plan and for the first time the plan will have a particular focus on students with an intellectual disability.

Delivery of the Plan is supported by the PATH programme, which will receive an additional dedicated investment of €35 million over the course of the plan. This year, funding will support new measures to strengthen Universal Design for students in higher education, including those with autism, and to enhance opportunities for students with intellectual disabilities in higher education.

This year a dedicated Strand 4 was launched to support learners with a disability especially those with an intellectual disability through dedicated funding of €12 million over four years. This will be implemented in two phases.

Phase 1 will comprise a once off fund totalling €3 million for Universal Design, to be allocated to higher education institutions in 2022. This will advance inclusive practices in higher education and support student success for all students but with particular benefit to students with special educational needs.

Phase 2 will involve a competitive funding call for a new three year path finding pilot programme, with a strong emphasis on course provision for students with intellectual disabilities which is expected to commence in 2023.

These financial supports sit alongside a dedicated Fund for Students with Disabilities, which aims to ensure that students can participate fully in education, on an equal basis with their peers.

Disability supports are also available to participants on FET programmes depending on the specific circumstances with funding dispersed under general individual programme. Within the FET sector, a broad range of supports are provided through the Education and Training Boards (ETBs) to support the participation of all learners, including those with disabilities.

In addition, the FET Strategy 2020 – 2024 is moving towards a Universal Design approach, whereby disability supports are integrated into mainstream provision insofar as is possible, with specialised supports reserved for people with needs that cannot be met through mainstream provision. Individualised supports, for addressing more specific needs among a smaller subset of learners will, of course, be maintained and promoted.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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128. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if it is his intention to seek a specific budget line in next year's estimates process for third level and further education through the medium of Irish in view of the legal obligations on the State arising from the enactment of the Official Languages (Amendment Act) 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59618/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Department for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science is committed to the implementation of the Official Languages Act 2003 to ensure the improved provision of public services through the Irish language. The Act was strengthened in 2021 in order to significantly increase the quality of those services provided in Irish to the public by State bodies.

It is important that projected workforce requirements are informed by the expertise of the relevant sectoral and Departmental experts, with my Department contributing based upon its responsibility to align the future output at third level education with such current and emerging workforce plans.

My Department is represented on a new Steering Committee established by the Department of Education to support the development of a Policy on Irish-medium education outside of the Gaeltacht. This group will provide oversight, guidance and direction on the development of the Policy. The Policy will contribute towards achieving the aims of the government's 20 Year Strategy for the Irish Language.

Specific support is provided for the development of Acadamh na hOllscolaíochta Gaeilge in NUIG. The Acadamh is a research and educational institution which is intended to promote and develop Irish-medium education. It is headquartered in NUIG’s main Galway City campus, but also has campuses in the Ceathrú Rua and Carna in Connemara, and in the Doirí Beaga in Gaoth Dobhair, Donegal.

The Higher Education Authority (HEA) allocated and paid €1,766,000 to Acadamh na hOllscolaíochta Gaeilge in the calendar year 2021 and 2022. This is co-funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (DTAGSM). That Department provided €900,000 for the 2020/21 academic year and has agreed to provide an allocation of €1,000,000 for each academic year for 2021/22 – 2023/24.

The Deputy may wish to know we have developed a new scheme called Gníomhaí Gaeilge in collaboration with the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) and the Higher Education Authority (HEA). The scheme is supported by the HEA with €150,000 in funding over a period of 3 years. Each student will be assigned a mentor and support will be provided by the Irish Association and Students Union with their work plan agreed on, at the start of the year. As well as this there will be Gníomhaí Gaeilge awards based on the progress of their work plan, at the end of the year. There will be Gníomhaí Gaeilge Certificates for each student active in the scheme.

The newly enacted Higher Education Authority Act 2022 includes a number of provisions in relation to the promotion of the Irish language.

The Objects of the Act require the HEA to have regard in performing its functions to supporting designated institutions of higher education in the promotion and use by those institutions of the Irish language.

Furthermore, in the region of €1m per annum is provided for the Advanced Irish Language Skills Initiative, which is aimed at training Irish speakers for employment in EU institutions and at developing the freelance Irish language translation sector at home.

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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129. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide details in relation to the National Access Plan and the way that his Department plans to monitor participation and successful inclusion; if there will be specific targets for individual groups, people with disabilities, students who are socio-economically disadvantaged and students who are members of Irish Traveller and Roma communities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59483/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The National Access Plan 2022-2028 (NAP) is framed and underpinned by available data from sources such as the Deprivation Index Score (DIS) data, the HEA Student Records System (SRS) and Equal Access Survey (EAS), the Census data and published data from other organisations.

Four overarching targets for the higher education system are set, reflecting some of the priority groups targeted by the plan. These targets as outlined below are challenging but in my view achievable by using a whole of institution - whole of education - whole of Government - whole of community approach.

1. A target of 54% has been set for new entrants from socioeconomically disadvantaged areas, up from 42% in the last plan.

2. A target of 20% for new mature entrant from socioeconomically disadvantaged areas, up from 11%

3. A target of 16% for students with a disability, up from 12.4%

4. A target of 150 new entrants from the Traveller Community which is up from 33.

A priority group for whom we have only limited data at present is the Roma community in Ireland. However, for the first time, Census 2022 has ‘Roma’ as an option category so we will be able to gather data for the Roma community with a view to developing targets.

The Higher Education Authority (HEA) will work with higher education institutions (HEIs) through the strategic dialogue and agreement of compacts process, to support participation by priority group students across the institution and different disciplines and professions. HEIs will report yearly to the HEA on progress against key performance indicators (KPIs) agreed in their compacts. The HEA will report regularly to my department on implementation of the Framework and achievement of its objectives

All targets are set to be reviewed over the lifetime of the plan, more particularly during the Mid Term review process in 2025.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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130. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will ensure that every undergraduate and post-graduate student, including those that are not on SFI and IRC funding, will receive the two €500 cost-of-living measures before the end of 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59752/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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As an immediate and tangible relief against the challenges of the rising cost of living, I was pleased to introduce: a once off payment in 2022 of €500 for PhD students who receive an IRC or SFI award and a €500 increase to the stipend baseline in 2023 for PhD students who receive an IRC or SFI award.

This measure will only apply to the cohort of students in receipt of a stipend from SFI or the IRC. I have made the necessary funding available to Science Foundation Ireland and the Irish Research Council and they have made it available to the Higher Education Institutions. As part of Budget 2023, it was agreed that payments should be made by the end of the year.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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131. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his Department has examined the role that the National Maritime College of Ireland can play training students and upskilling staff to service the emerging offshore wind industry in Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59832/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the Government is committed to the achievement of ambitious targets for offshore wind generation capacity by 2030 and is ensuring that the education and training system is appropriately positioned to support the growth and development of the skills required the move to Zero Carbon.

Important skills and workforce responses are already in place to meet the needs of the off-shore wind sector. These include, for example, the Green Tech Skillnet, promoted by Wind Energy Ireland, the representative body for the Irish wind industry. The Skillnet delivers training to support the optimisation of renewables on the Irish grid in the short, medium, and long term through upskilling and management development in wind, solar and hydrogen technologies, from planning, construction, and maintenance training as well as business supports in human resources, marketing and finance. Training supports are also being rolled out on the recently adopted Maritime Area Planning Act, 2021.

The Expert Group on Future Skills Needs report – ‘Skills for Zero Carbon – The Demand for Renewable Energy, Residential Retrofit and Electric Vehicle Deployment Skills to 2030’ published in 2021, advises on the nature and quantity of the skills required by these Zero Carbon sectors over the next decade, and will help inform the broader response put in place in order to deliver on the targets set for offshore renewable energy.

Skillnet Ireland - a Government of Ireland agency funded by my Department - invested over €1m in grant funding to Green Tech Skillnet during 2020 and 2021.

It is important that projected workforce requirements are informed by the expertise of the relevant sectoral, Departmental and industry experts, with my Department contributing based upon its responsibility to align the future output at third level education with such current and emerging workforce plans.

The success of the Government's plans for the development of off-shore wind energy in Ireland will require the mobilisation of the whole of the network of technological universities (including the South East Technological University), institutes of technology, and further education and training providers.

Ireland has an ambitious skills agenda supported by an advanced system of skills provision, across Further and Higher Education, lifelong learning and human capital development, which is agile and responsive to changes in the world of work, in order to address evolving skills needs.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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132. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his Department collates data on the number of students who drop out of third level education each year; and if so, if the data will be provided in tabular form. [58973/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The key source of statistics on students in higher education is the HEA's student records system (SRS) which records enrolments as at March of every academic year, giving a single point of reference. Therefore, data is not available on a national level on students who leave their programme during the course of the academic year.

The HEA publish data on the non-progression of students, specifically the non-progression of first-year new entrants. The most recent report is available on-line at and presents the non-progression of entrants to Level 6, Level 7 and Level 8 fulltime courses commencing in the academic years 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2019/20.

link:

Please note the definition employed in this analysis: Non-progression refers to the student not been present in the HEA data in the following academic year. This data does not exclude the small number of students who transfer to different HEIs in year 2 or who leave and return to study in a subsequent academic year. Also, data is only available for first-year new entrants.

The following table gives the overall non-progression rates by NFQ level.

Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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133. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide an outline on future capital works relating to further education and training institutes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59237/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the current National Development Plan committed to a significant step up in investment in Further Education and Training (FET) infrastructure.

Earlier this year, I announced an ambitious new phase of capital investment in the further education sector with the launch of two specific capital investment programmes for the sector. A Strategic Infrastructure Upgrade Fund (SIUF), supporting smaller-scale investments in existing FET infrastructure and a FET College of the Future Major Projects Fund, supporting projects to drive reform of the FET sector. This included consolidation of provision in high quality facilities, integration of further education and training, realisation of centres of excellence and unified tertiary planning.

In August of this year, I announced the first 13 projects that were successful under this SIUF call, which will now progress to the next stage of development - the appointment of a design team. These projects will target upgrades, expansion and modernisation to ensure fit for purpose facilities to meet our learners and teaching staff needs. A further 14 project applications submitted under the SIUF process remain under consideration and will be the subject of further engagement between SOLAS and the relevant ETBs.

The first tranche of successful projects under the FET College of the Future Major Projects Fund are currently being announced, these projects will now progress to the development of a Preliminary Business Case. These projects will significantly modernise and upgrade FET infrastructure and will enable the ambitions of the FET strategy to be fully realised.

My Department and I remain committed to supporting Further Education Institutes and the wider sector in achieving their vision for FET education and provision.