Written Answers Nos. 53-61
53. Deputy Marcella Corcoran Kennedy asked the Minister for Education and Skills the reason the Good Shepard Mother and Baby Home, Dunboyne, County Meath, has not been included under the scheme of State involvement in religious run residential institutions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24920/13]
View answerThe Schedule to the Residential Institutions Redress Act, 2002 included 123 specified institutions and section 4 of the Act enabled the Minister for Education and Science to provide for the insertion into the Schedule of "any industrial school, reformatory school, orphanage, children's home, special school which was established for the purpose of providing education services to children with a physical or intellectual disability or a hospital providing medical or psychiatric services to people with a physical or mental disability or mental illness in which children were placed and resident and in respect of which a public body had a regulatory or inspection function."
Two Orders were made specifying 16 additional institutions, in November 2004 and July 2005, bringing the total number of scheduled institutions to 139. Since then, no further institutions have been added to the Schedule. Following the publication of the Ryan Report in May 2009, there were a range of demands for the redress scheme to be extended, including demands to include specific institutions and categories of institutions. Having considered these demands, the then Government announced its decision not to revise the arrangements in its press statement of 15th April, 2010.
The closing date for receipt of applications by the Redress Board was 15th December, 2005. The Board could however accept late applications in exceptional circumstances, up until September 2011. The Board is currently finalising the remaining applications it received.
Requests to include Mother and Baby Homes in the Schedule were refused as they did not satisfy the eligibility conditions of section 4. St Patrick's Mother and Baby Home was included on the basis that it also operated as children's home and therefore came within the scope of section 4.
54. Deputy Charles Flanagan asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will clarify the level of contribution a postgraduate student (details supplied) in County Laois received following their appeal to Student Universal Support Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24834/13]
View answerOfficials in my Department have confirmed with Student Universal Support Ireland that the student referred to by the Deputy has been awarded a post graduate fee contribution, which for the academic year 2012/13 is €2,000.
55. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will make funding available for a student to undergo a psychological report (details supplied) in County Longford [24910/13]
View answerI can inform the Deputy that all primary and post primary schools have access to psychological assessments either directly through the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS), or through the Scheme for Commissioning Psychological Assessments (SCPA), full details of which are on the Department's website. Where a NEPS psychologist is not assigned to a school, authorities therein may access psychological assessments through SCPA. Under this scheme schools can have an assessment carried out by a member of the panel of private psychologists approved by NEPS, and NEPS will pay the psychologist the fees for this assessment directly.
It should also be noted that in common with many other psychological services, NEPS encourages a staged assessment process, whereby each school takes responsibility for a pupil's initial assessment, educational planning and remedial intervention. Only if there is a failure to make reasonable progress in spite of the school's best efforts, will a child be referred for individual psychological assessment.
It is the responsibility of the school Principal in the first instance to identify and prioritise pupils for assessment under the process described above. I have made enquiries in relation to the student referred to in the Deputy's question and understand that no request has been made by the school to NEPS in respect of this individual. I have asked that a Psychologist from this Service make contact with the school to discuss its needs both in general terms and specifically in relation to this student.
I would advise that the school Principal, in the first instance, should be contacted in relation to concerns for any pupil which require intervention from the NEPS service.
56. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Education and Skills the reason it is intended to build a new school in Knocknacarra, Galway, when there are already schools within a short distance of Knocknacarra that have empty classrooms; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24916/13]
View answerAs the Deputy will be aware, in June 2011, I announced that 20 new primary schools are to be established in the coming years across a number of locations to meet significantly increasing demographics in those areas. This announcement included a proposal to establish a new primary school in the Knocknacarra area in 2014. The Deputy will be aware of extensive housing developments in this particular area in recent years. The new school is required to meet a demographic need emanating from those developments. Applications for patronage of this new primary school are currently being sought by my Department from prospective patrons.
57. Deputy Joanna Tuffy asked the Minister for Education and Skills the educational institutions that are entitled to apply to offer Springboard or Momentum skills places; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24928/13]
View answerIt is open to all public, private and not for profit higher education providers to submit proposals for courses to be funded under Springboard. All courses approved for funding are selected by an independent panel with industry and educational expertise, having regard to published selection criteria and following a competitive tendering process. A call for proposals for courses to be run under Springboard 2013 was issued by the Higher Education Authority in February 2013 with a deadline for receipt of proposals of 9 April. The call documentation is available on the Higher Education Authority website (www.hea.ie/en/node/1502). Details of the courses selected for funding by the independent panel will be available in the coming weeks. More information on Springboard is available at www.Springboardcourses.ie.
Both public and private providers were also eligible to apply for funding from the Momentum fund, subject to a tender process. There were two stages in this process: (i) pre-qualification and (ii) project proposals assessment. Notification of the pre-qualification for the current round of funds was published on the e-tenders website last summer. Pre-qualified providers had the opportunity to submit proposals which were considered in line with the tender specification. No subsequent notification has been published. More information on Momentum is available at www.Momentumskills.ie
58. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 242 of 14 May 2013, the reason resources cannot be guaranteed to support enrollment; and the reason the child must wait until they start school [24943/13]
View answerThe Deputy will be aware that the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs) for allocating resource teachers and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) to schools to support children with special educational needs. The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support. This now includes a requirement for the NCSE to have regard to an overall cap on the number of SNA posts.
The NCSE requested all schools to submit their applications for SNA support for the coming school year to them by 15th March, 2013, and will advise all schools of their SNA allocations prior to the start of the new school year.
The NCSE has advised schools that in the case of new applications for SNA support, where the professional report has identified the care needs as being related specifically to behaviour, including such applications for junior infants, in general it will not be possible to consider access to SNA support until the school has set out the specific strategies that have been employed and that have been implemented to minimise the pupil's difficulties and to promote more adaptive behaviours. In instances where applications have been made for SNA support for junior infants, for care needs such as medical or toileting needs, as opposed to for behavioural reasons, access to SNA support will be allocated for such qualifying infants.
Where SNA support was not initially allocated to a school for a child in a junior infant class, but where it can be demonstrated that the child requires SNA assistance in the classroom environment, the school may apply to the NCSE for additional SNA support or for a review of their SNA allocation.
Whereas there is no prescriptive timeframe before which a review may take place, it will be expected that schools, before requesting any such review, will be in a position to demonstrate that they have made every effort to manage pupil behaviour and also to manage any SNA allocation that has already been made to their school to best effect.
All schools have the names and contact details of their local SENO. Parents may also contact their local SENO directly to discuss their child's special educational needs, using the contact details available on www.ncse.ie.
59. Deputy Joanna Tuffy asked the Minister for Education and Skills if there are any circumstances in which a student grant applicant who is not in receipt of a qualifying social welfare payment may be eligible for a special rate grant; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24973/13]
View answerThe qualifying criteria for the special rate of maintenance grant in the 2013/14 academic year as specified under the 2013 student grant scheme is as follows:
1. Student must qualify for the standard rate of grant.
2. Total reckonable income net of income disregards and Child Dependant Increase must not exceed €22,703.
3. As at the 31st December 2012, the reckonable income must include one of the eligible payments listed in Schedule 2 of the scheme.
The eligible payments listed in Schedule 2 are mainly of a social welfare nature. However, it also includes Designated Programmes such as the Tús Initiative and the Community Employment Scheme.
60. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Education and Skills the position regarding the new facilities promised for a school (details supplied) in County Kildare; the extent of the planning already undertaken; and the number of stages completed; when the project will be ready to go to tender; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24978/13]
View answerThe delivery of the new school referred to my the Deputy has been devolved to County Kildare VEC and is currently at an advanced stage of Architectural Planning and is included on my Department's 5 Year Capital Programme to progress to construction in 2013.
The project has completed two stages of Architectural Planning (Stage 1 and Stage 2(a)). It is envisaged that the project will shortly proceed to stage 2(b) which includes applications for Planning Permission, Fire Safety Certification, Disability Access Certification and the preparation of tender documents.
61. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Education and Skills if, in the case of a person (details supplied) in Dublin 22 who was previously refused higher education grant on the basis of their residency status and who became an Irish citizen in 2012, the previous the decision prevents them from ever qualifying for higher education grant; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24979/13]
View answerThe decision on eligibility for a student grant is a matter for the relevant grant awarding authority.
The Deputy will appreciate that in the absence of all of the relevant details that would be contained in an individual's application form, including those relating to residency and or nationality, it would not be possible for me to say whether or not a student would qualify for a grant.
The nationality requirements for the student grant scheme are set out in section 14 of the Student Support Act and regulation 5 of the Student Support Regulations. It is the student, and not his parents, that must meet the nationality requirements in his own right to qualify for a student grant.
The student grant scheme provides that a student's eligibility may be assessed or re-assessed in the event of a change in circumstances in relation to, inter alia, reckonable income, the number of dependant children, and nationality or immigration status. A student can apply to the assessing authority to be assessed or re-assessed for grant assistance.
The applicant in question should contact their grant awarding authority to confirm the position in relation to their eligibility for the grant.
