Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

289. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 108 of 19 May 2022, to provide an update on the long-outstanding issue of regularising the terms and conditions of adult education tutors employed by Education and Training Boards. [40912/23]

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

There are over 2,800 tutors employed across the 16 ETBs who are involved in delivering key programmes to learners within the Further Education and Training sector.

A range of industrial relations issues regarding adult education tutors have been under discussion for a number of years and progress has been made in resolving key issues, including the introduction of a consistent formula for awarding Contracts of Indefinite Duration in 2017 and the provision of access to leave schemes, paid leave and access to the appropriate public sector pension scheme in 2019. The claim to align tutors to a pay scale of an existing ETB grade remained unresolved.

Following discussions between the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, the Department of Education, which retains regulatory responsibility for the ETB sector, and the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, a proposal in response to the recommendation of the Labour Court regarding Adult Education Tutors was agreed.

The proposal is to establish a grade of Adult Educator with a standardised pay scale aligned with the Youthreach Resource Person Scale. This grade will apply to tutors employed in ETBs to deliver FET programmes.

The provision of a pay scale will allow for incremental progression and a career path for Tutors in the further education and training sector.

A formal offer has been issued to the relevant Unions and both sides are now engaging on the operational aspects of the offer.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

My Department and the Department of Health have made significant progress in providing additional places on healthcare programmes. This year, 460 additional places were created in healthcare programmes, including key therapeutic disciplines. This represents meaningful additionality within existing infrastructure in the Higher Education sector.

This follows on from the work of the working group my Department established last year to identify and address barriers to expansion in the health and social care professions. This working group has included representatives from the Department of Health, the HSE, CORU, and the higher education sector. This group looked at both incremental expansion from September 2023, and enabling more substantial expansion in the medium term.

The HEA recently conducted an expression of interest process for Higher Education Institutions interested in building capacity in Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine. Significant options for expansion were identified, and these options are being considered in the context of the Estimates process and National Development Plan capital ceilings. A further process will consider options to build capacity in priority therapy disciplines.

Following engagement between Queens University and Ulster University, my Department and the Departments of Health, both North and South, 200 places in nursing are available to students from this jurisdiction from this September. A further fifty places are available in therapy disciplines in Ulster University from September 2023, with 20 places each in occupational therapy and physiotherapy, and 10 places in speech and language therapy.

There are also a number of healthcare-related courses provided in the further education sector in the areas of occupational therapy assistant, physiotherapy assistant, psychology and dietetics. I recently announced the roll-out of PLC courses to train speech and language therapist assistants. These PLC courses will be running in five Education and Training Boards from this month, with an estimated 120 students expected on these programmes.