Written Answers Nos. 152-159
152. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Education and Skills the reason a person (details supplied) was unable to receive financial support from Caranua for life-saving medicine and travel to hospital, a journey of 100 miles from the person's home, in circumstances where the person is unable to use public transport and is living on disability payments. [16024/15]
View answerCaranua, the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Board, is an independent statutory body established pursuant to the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Act 2012 to oversee the use of the cash contributions of up to €110 million, pledged by the religious congregations, to support the needs of survivors of institutional child abuse. The determination of criteria and the processing of individual applications are matters for Caranua itself and my officials have requested Caranua to examine the issues raised in the Deputy's question and to reply to her as soon as possible.
153. Deputy Terence Flanagan asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide funding to support the yellow flag programme (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16040/15]
View answerMy Department's policy in this area is underpinned by the Action Plan on Bullying. Guidelines to assist schools in developing an Anti-Bullying Policy were issued to all schools in 2013. Schools may choose from a number of programmes available to them in order to deal with the particular issues they have identified and my Department does not endorse any one particular programme. Therefore, I do not think it would be appropriate to fund the Yellow Flag programme.
The approach adopted under the Action Plan is for schools to use the programme best suited to address the particular challenges they face. It does not favour addressing identity-based bullying on an issue-by-issue basis, but rather recommends respect for all.
154. Deputy Michael McCarthy asked the Minister for Education and Skills the position in relation to grant funding for windows recently made available through the summer works scheme being changed to a grant for a new heating system for schools (details supplied) in County Louth, in view of the urgent issues that have arisen over the past number of months with the current heating system and the significant costs to both schools incurred as result; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16079/15]
View answerI wish to advise the Deputy that my Department provided emergency grant funding to the second named school in September 2014 to undertake repairs to its heating system. I understand that these repair works have commenced. The first named school also applied for grant aid under the Emergency Works Scheme to undertake works to its heating system. The school was requested to provide additional information and this is awaited. The application can be considered further following receipt of this information.
The Deputy is aware that my Department approved funding for window replacement at both schools under the 2014 Summer Works Scheme. It is not possible to reallocate this funding for works to the heating system. It is however open to the schools to apply for funding for these works under any future Summer Works Schemes.
155. Deputy Shane Ross asked the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to address the antiquated categorisation of children in the ethnic or cultural background group within the primary online database form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16080/15]
View answerMy Department feels that the question used to collect data on ethnic or cultural background should be harmonized across all the education partners and other bodies who collect this type of information. As the CSO is the National Statistical Office, we are taking our lead from them and we have used the categories that they used for Ethnic or cultural background on the 2011 Census of Population.
The Statistics Section of the Department met with the CSO's Census of Population Division to discuss concerns around this question. The CSO accept that the variant of the ethnicity question on the 2016 census may fall short of what could be expected in today's multi-racial Ireland.
Given the no-change census approach being adopted for Census of Population 2016 it is not possible to change the CSO question at this stage. However the CSO has indicated that it is considering holding a seminar this year to examine how the data in this area can be improved from the point of view of maximising the number of write-in responses to increase the variety of ethnic descriptions captured, the classification system used, and also looking at the nationality vs. citizenship issue and examining generally how the outputs from the census can be improved in this important area. The Department of Education and Skills will be participating in this seminar.
156. Deputy Martin Heydon asked the Minister for Education and Skills the position in relation to a lease in respect of a school (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16083/15]
View answerAs previously advised in a reply to the Deputy in February 2015, the building referred to by the Deputy is not in my ownership.
In March 2010 the property was extensively damaged by fire. At that time, the property was subject to a 60 year lease between the Minister and the property owner. This lease was due to expire in March 2014.
In late 2013 the Department reached an agreement with the property owner to surrender the lease. A formal agreement was subsequently signed to this effect and a sum paid to the property owners which reflected the Minister's obligations under the lease with regard to restoration. This payment was a full and final settlement of the obligations under the lease which meant that the Minister was not required to complete any refurbishment works.
157. Deputy Martin Heydon asked the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to review class sizes in primary schools in advance of the next budget; her plans to initiate changes in the next five years to provide clarity to parents and teachers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16084/15]
View answerMy focus in Budget 2015 was on obtaining the additional funding that was necessary to provide for demographic growth. The last Budget included an increase in spending on education for the first time in recent years, amounting to additional funding of €60m during 2015.
This funding will be used to provide 1,700 additional teachers and SNAs for our schools, as well as to fund prioritised reforms, such as implementation of the literacy and numeracy strategy, reform of junior cycle, and the introduction of education focussed pre-school inspections. The improvements in the Primary Staffing Schedule for small schools which I announced in February last are the only changes that I will be making to the staffing arrangements for schools for the 2015/16 school year.
The staffing arrangements for schools currently include the provision where schools experiencing rapid increases in enrolment can apply for additional permanent mainstream posts on developing grounds. Such posts are provisionally approved pending confirmation of actual enrolment on the following 30th September.
The Government's approach to restoring the economy has helped Ireland to return to a position where we are seeing economic growth. It is a continuing improvement in our economic growth over a sustained period that will enable us to move to a point where we can look again at providing for additional teacher resources in schools which could bring about further improvement in PTR, class size and support for classroom teachers.
The challenge for all schools is to ensure that they utilise their allocated resources to best effect to maximise teaching and learning outcomes.
158. Deputy Martin Heydon asked the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to review the overall funding for children in education and to increase the capitation rates per school to take account of the increased costs that are facing parents and boards of management; her plans to put a funding mechanism in place to cover other activities in schools such as art, swimming, and information and communications technology; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16085/15]
View answerThe last Budget included an increase in spending on education for the first time in recent years, amounting to additional funding of €60m during 2015. As I have mentioned in response to earlier questions, that increase has provided funding for 1,700 additional teachers and SNAs to be recruited for our schools, as well as funding important reforms. However, it was not possible to secure the funding which would be required to also increase the rates of capitation paid to our schools.
Capitation funding for general running expenses and funding provided for caretaking and secretarial services may be regarded as a common grant which the Board of Management can allocate according to its own priorities.
There is no specific funding provided for items such as art and swimming. I have no scope to introduce new additional funding measures to assist schools, such as those referred to by the Deputy.
My Department is committed to the implementation of a new digital strategy for schools which will focus on enhancing teaching and learning through the use of ICT in the classroom, the provision of funding to schools will be considered in this context.
I am determined that education will be prioritised for further investment in future years, and I believe that increasing the staffing and funding of our schools should be priorities for such investment.
159. Deputy Martin Heydon asked the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to restore middle management and leadership posts within schools, specifically including an increase in release days for teaching principals; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16086/15]
View answerWhen the moratorium on the filling of posts of responsibility was introduced in 2009, the Government exempted Principal and Deputy Principal posts in all primary and post-primary schools. These posts continue to be replaced in the normal manner. The impact of the moratorium was therefore limited to the Assistant Principal and Special Duties posts of responsibility.The alleviation arrangements set out in Circular 0004/2014 provide a floor by which schools acutely affected at AP level by the impact of the moratorium can fill their AP vacancies as they arise to the level of the thresholds set out in that circular.
It continues to be a matter for each individual school authority to re-organise and prioritise the appropriate duties for post of responsibility holders in the context of implementing the moratorium.
However, I think it is fair to say that before the moratorium, notwithstanding the fact that one out of every two teachers held a management allowance, the workload issue and the pressures on Principals and Deputy Principals existed.
Simply lifting the moratorium and increasing release days as extra funding becomes available in future years is not the best way of improving how school leadership is distributed in our schools.
Economic constraints and the moratorium on recruitment albeit alleviated to some extent for schools, have presented challenges within the education sector. They also provide an opportunity to review the role of the principal so that our principals are leaders of learning, and to reconfigure the middle management structure to support principals in their role, ensuring ownership of responsibility rather than tasks, thereby building expertise and supporting a career path within the profession.
The Department, in consultation with the representative management bodies has commenced an exploration of the opportunities to support and thereby advance our understanding of the needs of school leaders and how they might be addressed.
