Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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1828. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills in line with Action 54 of the Final Report by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Autism, if his Department has, or if he has plans to, liaise with the Department of Health to increase the number of places in third-level courses in occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, physiotherapy, psychology, social work and nursing and work to match these numbers with clinical placements. [57103/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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A significant amount of work has taken place to date, in collaboration with the Department of Health, to increase the number of places in disciplines with acute health care and medical skills shortages. There are some fundamental issues, which are in the control of the health sector, which must be solved to enable expansion. These relate to guarantees of clinical placements, detailed and robust workforce planning projections and engagement with regulators. In addition to qualifying additional health professionals, success in the recruitment and retention of health professionals by the health sector will be key.In July 2022, I announced an increase in medicine places for EU students in Irish Medical Schools, alongside the Minister for Health. The agreement reached with the medical schools led to an increase of 60 places in September 2022, climbing to 120 in September 2023, and up to 200 by 2026. This will mean by 2026 an additional 200 students will commence medicine each year.In July 2023, the creation of over 400 additional healthcare places in higher education institutions in the State was announced. This represents meaningful additionality within existing infrastructure, and it comes on top of substantial expansion in nursing in recent years.My Department is a key member of the Steering Group for Disability Workforce chaired by Minister Rabbitte and works closely with colleagues in the Department for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, as well as the Department of Health and HSE on expanding the workforce across therapy disciplines. Additionally there has been extensive engagement with regards to ring-fenced places in Northern Ireland for students from the Republic in key healthcare and therapy areas. Eighty (80) once-off additional places in allied health professions were made available to ROI students in Ulster University in September 2023. These included 30 places in Physiotherapy, 28 in Occupational Therapy and 10 in Speech and Language Therapy. The Department of Health is separately funding 140 nursing students in both Queens University Belfast and Ulster University.My priority is to ensure that we build capacity in a sustainable way which will allow for steady growth and forward planning by both the health and higher education sectors for a graduate pipeline to meet the needs of the health system and society as a whole.My Department will continue to work closely with the Department of Health to progress this work.

Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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1829. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to increase the number of places in third-level courses in planning in line with 55 of the Final Report by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Autism. [57104/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Ireland has an advanced system of skills provision, which is agile and responsive to skills shortages as they emerge to address evolving societal and economic needs. Through its work in apprenticeship, construction and green skills and informed by research commissioned, this Department is cognisant of the challenges presented with regard to qualified planner availability. These include issues associated with attracting and retaining planners in the profession and the related issue of student demand for places on planning-related courses. The Public Service Apprenticeship Plan, launched in August 2023, recognises the skills need for planning officials in the public service. Since then, a number of interested organisations, including DHLGH, the Office of the Planning Regulator, and the Office of Public Works have approached DFHERIS for guidance and support for their ambitions to leverage the apprenticeship model to address this shortage as well as to enhance accessibility for a more diverse cohort of candidates to the planning profession. As employees, apprentices are paid for the duration of their training, and it is typical that they are offered continued employment by their employer upon completion of the programme. This is a clear advantage of this qualification route and it would broaden the profession as an option for those who may experience access barriers to reskilling or upskilling in higher education. An apprenticeship programme typically takes 2-years to develop and launch. As such, the work to develop a new programme in planning would be targeting a Q4 2025 first-intake at its earliest. The Department remains available to facilitate the consortia with accessing available supports and provide appropriate advice to enable this work.In higher education, the Department provides targeted funding via the National Training Fund, to support upskilling and reskilling in areas of critical skills need to the economy. Through the Human Capital Initiative Pillar 1 and Springboard+ initiatives, courses in Marine Spatial Planning and Corporate Environmental Planning are being offered in 2023/24 with 16 places being made available on each course. With regard to the potential development of other new programmes to support the pipeline of planning professionals and with specialist knowledge of neurodiversity issues and urban design, it is important to note that higher education institutions are autonomous within the meaning of the Universities Act 1997, the Institutes of Technology Acts 1992 to 2006 and the Technological Universities Act 2018. Under this legislation the institutions are academically independent and are entitled to regulate their own academic affairs including admissions, programmes of study and awarding degrees and other qualifications. Higher education institutions receive funding from a variety of sources which contribute to the expenditure associated with the full range of institutional activities. Funding includes recurrent funding allocated by this Department to the Higher Education Authority (HEA) for direct disbursement to HEA funded higher education institutions, allocated as a block grant. As autonomous bodies, the internal disbursement of funding , including how much is allocated to individual areas including Planning-related education, is the responsibility of each individual institution. My Department remains open to engaging with relevant stakeholders on the above matters.

Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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1830. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills in line with Action 57 of the Final Report by the Oireachtas Joint Committee, if his Department has plans to liaise with the Department of Education and the Central Applications Office to provide prospective students with information regarding Leaving Certificate results and third level placements in sufficient time to allow for higher education institutions to engage with students who may have need for additional supports. [57105/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The State Examinations Commission (SEC) has responsibility for the operation, delivery and development of the State examinations. The SEC has not confirmed a date on which the Leaving Certificate 2024 results will be issued. However, it continues to work intensively to prepare for the examinations process.The date for the issue of the results for 2023 was the 25th August, which was a full week earlier than the 2022 results, which issued on the 2nd of September 2022. It was a significant and very welcome step towards pre-pandemic norms in relation to the timing for issue of results.My Department will continue to engage with all relevant stakeholders, including the Department of Education, regarding transitions from Post Primary to third level education, including those who require additional support.Funding of €12m is being made available to third level institutions between 2022 and 2025 to improve services for students on the autism spectrum. This initiative forms part of PATH 4 of the National Access Plan (NAP), which highlighted the need to improve and increase representation in higher education for students with a disability including students with autism and students with intellectual disabilities.

Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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1831. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills in line with Action 61 of the Final Report by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Autism his plans to provide multiannual funding based on the academic calendar to allow higher education institutions to undertake comprehensive, long-term planning to establish supports for disabled students as well as tailored supports for individual students before the beginning of the academic year. [57106/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I would like to thank the Oireachtas Joint Committee for their work on this area and I note the recommendations contained in their report.In 2022 I launched the fourth National Access Plan - A strategic action plan for equity of access, participation and success in higher education, 2022 to 2028. This plan aligns with and builds on the wider ambitions of the Programme for Government to provide accessible, affordable education to all citizens with a mid-plan review in 2025.While higher education institutions are autonomous, the approach of my Department has been to offer a range of supports which enable them to meet national objectives, including those related to inclusion and supports for people with disabilities. Since the launch of the new National Access Plan I have provided a €12 million multi-annual fund (€3m per year over 4 years), known as PATH 4 with the aim of supporting universal design and enhancing provision for students with an intellectual disability. Phase 1 of this project saw a total of €3m in funding provided to support Universal Design to 19 Higher Education Institutions. The projects included Campus accessibility improvements, accessible learning resources, staff development and small-scale capital works such as autism-friendly spaces or quiet zones. Institutions can also use funding from their Devolved Capital Grant as part of broader Universal Design for Learning upgrade projects.Phase 2 (2023-2025) involves a three-year pilot to support an enhancement of course provision for students with intellectual disabilities and to inform future policy considerations in respect of students with intellectual disabilities. I have recently received the recommendations of the expert panel who assessed the proposals. I expect to be in a position to announce the results of funding for this multi-annual package in the coming weeks.

In relation to other measures as the Deputy may be aware, the Fund for Students with Disabilities in Higher Education will be topped up in 2024 by 5%, bringing the total to €8 million for the first time ever. This is paid out an calendar year basis by the HEA to the HEI’s, in line with the recommendations of the Review of the Fund for Students with Disabilities published in October 2017.