Written Answers Nos. 774-787
774. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the Minister for Education and Skills the reason the Teaching Council of Ireland has over €16 million of teachers' levies (details supplied) in a bank account, while paying its chief executive officer a salary of over €108,000; her views that this surplus should be to reduce the annual levy, or be invested in the schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11368/15]
View answerIn accordance with the Teaching Council Act 2001, the Teaching Council is the body with statutory responsibility for the regulation of the teaching profession, including recognition of teaching qualifications and the registration of teachers.
The Teaching Council is self-financing; it is not financed from Oireachtas or public funds and its income is derived mainly from teacher registration fees. The balance held by the Council was €13.4m at the end of 2014 and it is projected to reduce to €12.3m at the end of 2015. The salary of the CEO is €97,981. In accordance with the Teaching Council Act, the Council's Annual Report, including the financial statement, is laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas each year.
The cost base of the Council will increase significantly when certain sections of the Teaching Council Act relating to core functions are commenced, which should be in the near future. The accumulated funds will be used, among other things, to meet these extra costs and it is also considered prudent that the Council maintain a reserve.
The fee for registering as a teacher with the Teaching Council is substantially less than for other professions and it is intended that it remain at its current level for the foreseeable future.
775. Deputy Finian McGrath asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will postpone cuts to a teaching post in a Delivering Equality of Opportunity in School (details supplied) in Dublin 9; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11377/15]
View answerBudget 2012 provided for the phased withdrawal of approximately 428 posts allocated to some schools under disadvantage programmes prior to the introduction of DEIS in 2005. Due to conflicting reports of posts being lost in these schools, my Department produced a report on the impact of the withdrawal of these legacy posts from DEIS Band 1 and Band 2 Schools. Following the Government's decision of 21 February 2012 in the matter, a number of schools continued to retain disadvantaged legacy posts from previous disadvantage schemes on a year to year basis and only where warranted, based on the enrolment of the previous 30th September.
The criteria used for the allocation of teachers to primary schools is published annually on the website of the Department of Education and Skills. The key factor for determining the level of staffing resources provided at individual school level is the staffing schedule for the relevant school year and pupil enrolments on the previous 30 September. Circular 0005/2015 which sets out the staffing arrangements for the 2015/16 school year is now available on the website.
As the teaching allocation to schools, including legacy posts, is enrolment based, it is this which determines whether schools gain or lose teaching posts from year to year. The school referred to by the Deputy will have its legacy post subsumed into its mainstream staffing from September 2015 as it saw an increase in enrolment sufficient to warrant an additional mainstream classroom teaching post for the 2015/16 school year.
776. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she has consulted with the Department of Social Protection on the number of students who will no longer qualify for Student Universal Support Ireland payments, due to changes in the one-parent family payment; the number of persons that will be affected by same; and her plans to address this matter. [11391/15]
View answerMy Department is in consultation with the Department of Social Protection in the context of the review of the Student Grant Scheme for the 2015/16 academic year. As part of that process my Department is consulting on the reform of the One-Parent Family Payment, by the Department of Social Protection, to limit the impact for grant applicants who may be affected by this change. This process is still ongoing.
777. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills if an application for additional accommodation in respect of a school (details supplied) in County Donegal has been granted; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11394/15]
View answerThe school referred to by the Deputy recently submitted an application for additional accommodation.
The application was assessed and I am pleased to inform the Deputy that devolved funding to build an 80sqm mainstream classroom and a 16sqm learning support room has been approved.
This decision was communicated to the school in question on 12th March last.
778. Deputy Michael Ring asked the Minister for Education and Skills if officials from her Department will meet with a school (details supplied) in County Mayo to discuss the urgent needs of the school; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11412/15]
View answerA major building project for the school, referred to by the Deputy, is at an advanced stage of architectural planning. The school's Design Team are currently working on Stage 2b - Detailed Design, which involves obtaining planning permission, fire certificate and disability access certificate and the completion of tender documents. Final Grant of Planning was received in September 2014.
It is not possible to progress all projects within my Department's building programme to construction concurrently due to competing demands on my Department's capital budget. However, school building projects, including this project, which have not been included in the five year construction programme or in the most recent announced list of projects, but which have been initiated, will continue to be progressed to final planning stages in anticipation of the possibility of further funds being available to my Department in the future.
Officials from the School Building Unit of my Department have been in contact with the School Authorities to arrange a date for a meeting to discuss the school's accommodation needs.
779. Deputy Tom Fleming asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will examine an application in respect of a school (details supplied) in County Kerry for emergency funding for roof-slate which is disintegrating rapidly, as there is an immediate need to replace it under the emergency fund scheme and as inaction will escalate the condition of the roof; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11430/15]
View answerThe management authorities of the school referred to by the Deputy submitted an application for funding under my Department's Emergency Works Scheme to replace a slate roof at their school.
As the scope of works for which funding is sought is outside the terms of the scheme it cannot be considered for funding. The management authority of the school has been informed of this decision.
The school authority has been advised to submit a scaled down application to address the immediate health & safety issues and as soon as this application is received it will be assessed and the school authorities notified of the outcome.
780. Deputy John McGuinness asked the Minister for Education and Skills the position regarding a submission in respect of a school (details supplied) in County Carlow regarding the provision of astroturf pitches; if the funding requested will be made available; and if she will expedite a positive response. [11431/15]
View answerMy Department's over-riding objective is to ensure that every child has access to a physical school place and that our school system is in a position to cope with increasing numbers. This will continue to be the main focus for investment by my Department in the coming years therefore it is not possible to provide funding for the provision of an astroturf pitch at the school referred to by the Deputy.
781. Deputy Joanna Tuffy asked the Minister for Education and Skills the position regarding the planned extension to Lucan Community College in County Dublin; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11441/15]
View answerThe building project referred to by the Deputy is included in the Five Year Construction Programme to proceed to Tender and Construction.
The original design team appointed to the project had reached completion of Stage 1 of Architectural Planning. As part of that work and following an assessment of the current accommodation, it was agreed by the Department that extensive additional refurbishment works to the existing school would also be required.
The Department approved a significant increase in the scope of works for the project to incorporate those refurbishment works. Arising from this expansion in the scope of works it was necessary to commence a tender exercise for the appointment of a new design team to take the project forward from this point. This process, which was conducted by the ETB, has been completed and the new Design Team have been authorised to proceed to Stage 2A of Architectural Planning - Developed Design. Upon successful completion of Stage 2A the project will then progress to complete Stage 2B - Detailed Design, which includes the application for statutory approvals and the preparation of Tender Documents for Contractors. Following completion of stage 2(b) the project will then be progressed to tender and construction. The Department met with representatives of the ETB earlier this month regarding progression of the project.
782. Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide details of any assessments her Department has carried out examining the number of new schools built since January 2009, that her Department has identified as potentially meriting status under the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools programme, but have not applied or received this designation due to the capacity constraints in the programme; and if she will provide, in tabular form, the number and location of these schools. [11442/15]
View answerThe current position in relation to DEIS (Delivering Equality Of Delivering Opportunity in Schools) is that I expect to receive a report commissioned from the Economic and Social Research Institute on "Learning from DEIS" in the near future.
I understand that this report will incorporate information in relation to the various inputs, processes and educational outcomes contained in the findings from the DEIS research and evaluations conducted to date by the Educational Research Centre and my Department's Inspectorate. It will also review other related Irish and international research on educational disadvantage. The report will assesses the main findings of this research and will provide an input to inform future policy direction in relation to educational disadvantage including DEIS.
In the meantime, my Department is keeping the operation of DEIS under ongoing review.
783. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will allocate five hours learning support per mainstream teacher to a Delivering Equality of Opportunity in School (details supplied) in County Donegal, instead of the four hours' learning support per mainstream teacher that it currently receives; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11478/15]
View answer784. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills her views that it is appropriate to discriminate against those girls who attend an all-girls' primary school in terms of learning support allocation, as an all-girls' school receives four hours' learning support per mainstream teacher, as opposed to five hours' learning support per mainstream teacher for mixed and all-boys' schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11480/15]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 783 and 784 together.
I wish to advise the Deputy that differing teacher allocation ratios are applied under the General Allocation Model (GAM) in relation to boys, girls and mixed schools in order to account for differentials of prevalence of learning difficulty between boys and girls. The objective of this differentiation is to ensure that resources provided to schools to support children who have additional learning needs are targeted to ensure that those children most in need benefit from these resources.
The rationale for the differing ratios is based on international literature on the incidence of disability as well as international and national surveys of literacy and numeracy which indicate that there is a greater incidence of disability/learning difficulty in boys than girls.
The NCSE has published a report 'A study of the Prevalence of Special Educational Needs' which is available at www.ncse.ie and which contains details regarding the prevalence of special needs among the pupil population including noting gender differentials.
It should be noted that schools in Delivering Equality of Opportunity in School Band 1 category also receive an additional base allocation of 0.4 of a post if the school has 200 or more pupils or an additional 0.2 of a post if the school has less than 200 pupils.
Details of the GAM allocation process for schools for the coming 2015/16 school year are set out in Circular 05/2015, which is available on my Department's website at www.education.ie.
Finally, the recently published NCSE Report Delivery for Students with Special Educational Needs, which is also available at www.ncse.ie, recommended that a new resource teaching allocation model be devised for schools taking into account the profiled need of schools and the educational profile of a school. In doing so, the NCSE report recommended that gender should continue to be a factor in deciding on school profile for resource allocation purposes.
785. Deputy Anthony Lawlor asked the Minister for Education and Skills if additional funding will be made available for the building of additional classrooms in a school (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11495/15]
View answerI wish to advise the Deputy that my Department has received an application from the school to which he refers for funding for additional accommodation. The application is currently being considered and a decision will be conveyed to the school authority as soon as this process has been completed.
786. Deputy Michael Ring asked the Minister for Education and Skills the outcome of an appeal to the Student Grants Appeals Board in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Mayo. [11506/15]
View answerThe appeal of the student referred to by the deputy was heard by the independent Appeals Board on the 24th February 2015. The Appeals Board overturned the decision of the appeals officer.
I understand that SUSI has implemented the Appeals Board's decision and that a letter issued to the student on 10 March 2015.
787. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if a school place has been found for a child (details supplied) in Dublin 9; her plans to address this matter; the date on which she will bring forward the education (admissions) Bill; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11509/15]
View answerThe selection and enrolment of pupils in schools is the responsibility of the authorities of the individual school. My Department's main responsibility is to ensure that schools in an area can, between them, cater for all pupils seeking school places in an area. However, this may result in some pupils not obtaining a place in the school of their first choice. As schools may not have a place for every applicant, a selection process may be necessary. This selection process and the enrolment policy on which it is based must be non-discriminatory and must be applied fairly in respect of all applicants.
Under section 15 (2) (d) of the Education Act, 1998, each school is legally obliged to disclose its enrolment policy and to ensure that as regards that policy that principles of equality and the right of parents to send their children to a school of the parents' choice are respected.
Section 29 of the Education Act, 1998 provides for an appeal by a parent or guardian to the Secretary General of this Department, or in the case of an Educational Training Board (ETB) school to the ETB in the first instance, where a Board of Management of a school, or a person acting on behalf of the Board, refuses to enrol a student in a school, expels a student or suspends a student for 20 or more days in any school year.
Application forms for taking a section 29 appeal are available on my Departments website at the following link: http://www.education.ie/en/Parents/Services/Appeal-against-Permanent-Exclusion-Suspension-or-Refusal-to-Enrol/Section-29-Appeals-Application-Form.doc, or by contacting Section 29 Administration Unit, Friars Mill Road, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, phone 0761 108588. My Department has no authority to compel a school to admit a pupil, except in the case of an appeal under section 29 of the Education Act, 1998 being upheld.
The Educational Welfare Service of the Child and Family Agency (EWS) is the statutory agency which can assist parents who are experiencing difficulty in securing a school place for their child. The EWS may be able to offer assistance and advice on securing a school placement within the pupil's area. The contact details for the EWS is Educational Welfare Service of the Child and Family Agency, 16-22 Green Street, Dublin 7, phone number 01-8738700.
The Deputy will be aware that Government gave approval in March last year for drafting the Education (Admission to Schools) Bill. The bill is currently at an advanced stage of drafting and is on the Government legislative programme for publication early in the Spring/Summer session.
The objective of the Admissions to School Bill is to provide an over-arching framework to ensure that how schools decide on who is enrolled and who is refused a place in schools is more structured, fair and transparent.
The framework proposes new powers for the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) and the Child and Family Agency to designate a school place for those children who cannot get any school place.
