Written Answers Nos. 91-100
91. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills when he will issue a reply to an interim response regarding a school (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12313/16]
View answerThe criteria used for the allocation of teaching posts for the 2016/2017 school year is set out in Circular 0007/2016. 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 30 September 2015.
The staffing arrangements at primary level also include an appeals mechanism for schools to submit an appeal under certain criteria to the Primary Staffing Appeals Board.
The school referred to by the Deputy submitted an application for consideration by the Appeals Board at its March meeting. The appeal was upheld by the Appeals Board, providing the school achieve an enrolment of at least 85 on 30th September 2016. The school was notified of the outcome of the appeal in March.
The Appeal Board operates independently of the Department and its decision is final.
92. Deputy Seamus Healy asked the Minister for Education and Skills the status of an application for an extension by a school (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12336/16]
View answerI can confirm that the school referred to by the Deputy has submitted an application for additional accommodation.
The application is currently being assessed and a decision will be conveyed to the school authority as soon as this process has been finalised.
93. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he can provide assistance, including student loan facilities, to a person (details supplied) who proposes to attend Griffith College in Dublin 9; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12351/16]
View answerPrivate colleges operating on a for-profit basis, as is the case with Griffith College, are not listed as approved institutions for student grant purposes. However, tax relief on tuition fees may be available for students attending courses in private colleges. Details in relation to this relief are available from the Revenue Commissioners. I also understand that financial institutions offer a range of student lending facilities.
As the Deputy will be aware, the last Government established an Expert Group to examine funding arrangements for higher education in Ireland. As part of its work, the group considered the nature and extent of financial supports for students across the sector.
This Group has completed its work and its report will shortly be considered. As signalled in the Programme for Government, it is the intention to consult the cross-party Oireachtas Committee as part of the process for formulating a plan for funding higher education into the future. I would like to assure the Deputy that we will engage quickly and openly with the Committee on this issue.
94. Deputy Declan Breathnach asked the Minister for Education and Skills when a long awaited building project will commence in a school (details supplied), given that the original planning for the project started in 2003 and ten of the school's 16 classrooms are prefabricated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12391/16]
View answerThe major building project for the school in question is currently at an advanced stage of Architectural Planning, Stage 2B Detailed Design Stage. A brief change request from the Board of Management to use an adjoining site to fully decant the school during construction was approved by the Department on 15th September 2015.
The school and its design team were authorised to secure planning permission, Fire cert and Disability Access Certificate for the temporary decant accommodation in parallel with the pre-qualification of contractors for the main project. Planning permission has been granted by Meath County Council for the temporary accommodation and the Design Team have recently submitted applications to Meath County Council for the Disability Access Certificate and the Fire Cert. A decision by the local authority is awaited.
The stage 2(b) cost plan and tender documentation have to be updated by the design team to reflect the approved brief change and submitted to my Department for review once the statutory approvals have been secured.
My Department will revert to the school with regard to the further progression of the project following consideration of the revised Stage 2b report.
95. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills when he will meet the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland regarding various matters of concern and if he has set preconditions for such a meeting; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12392/16]
View answerThe purpose of the wider framework of public service agreements is to balance the rightful ambition of public servants to see improvements in their pay and conditions with the needs of the public to see improvements in the services they use after a lost decade of investment.
These agreements, and in particular the most recent Lansdowne Road Agreement, bring important benefits for public servants generally and teachers in particular, including increments, Supervision and Substitution Payment, protection again compulsory redundancy, and alleviation of the FEMPI pay cut for higher earners.
They also bring significant benefits for users of public services, which in the education sector include the so-called 'Croke Park hours', which help ensure that parent-teacher meetings, staff meetings and other activities can proceed without schools being closed during the school day.
Just as being inside these agreements bring benefits, it is also important to point out that being outside these agreements bring risks for both public servants and for the wider public who use the services they provide.
ASTI members voted at ballot last Autumn not to accept the Lansdowne Road Agreement. However, they have continued to abide by the Haddington Road Agreement, which has an original expiry date of 30 June 2016.
Following a recent ballot, ASTI members have now voted to withdraw from the Croke Park hours upon completion of the Haddington Road Agreement.
The Croke Park hours are a valuable resource within the school system which allow certain essential activities involving the entire teaching staff or groups of teachers to take place. These include staff meetings, parent-teacher meetings, school planning, subject planning and mandated Continuous Professional Development.
Except for an element of parent-teacher and staff meetings, prior to the Croke Park Agreement these essential activities took place within tuition time, meaning that schools closed for full or half days in order to carry them out. Pupils did not attend the school during these closures, resulting in interruption to tuition and additional childcare costs and significant inconvenience for parents, particularly the parents of primary school children.
Under the Croke Park Agreement, teachers agreed to provide 1 hour of additional time per week so that these essential activities could be carried out without school closure and the consequent interruption to tuition for pupils and inconvenience for parents. This time commitment continues under the Haddington Road and Lansdowne Road Agreements. It is important to note that many public servants committed significantly more hours than this under the public service agreements.
In withdrawing from these hours, ASTI are thereby repudiating the Lansdowne Road Agreement.
In opting to withdraw from the Lansdowne Road Agreement ASTI members are also opting to forego a series of benefits and protections, as communicated by my Department previously. These include avoiding an increment freeze, continuation of the alleviation of the FEMPI Act 2013 pay cut for higher earners, the Supervision and Substitution payment of €796 due to be paid on 1 September and protection against compulsory redundancy.
A further significant consequence will be the withdrawal of the benefits introduced for new teachers under the Ward Report, which enable them to gain permanent employment and full hours more quickly than before.
ASTI were invited to discussions with my Department on the same basis as INTO and TUI. Regrettably, ASTI declined to take part in such discussions and instead decided to ballot on a withdrawal from the Croke Park hours. My Department's invitation to ASTI to discuss issues of mutual concern remains open.
96. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills to outline his efforts to prevent a student accommodation crisis in autumn 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12393/16]
View answerThe Government is very conscious of the concerns regarding the availability of accommodation for students. The reality is that dealing comprehensively with this issue will only take place as part of a more general programme to address the major housing and homelessness issue, and the new Government has appointed a specific Minister for Housing with a commitment to develop an Action Plan for Housing within 100 days. The Dáil has also established a Committee on Housing and Homelessness to review the implications of these problems and to make recommendations in that regard.
In relation to the impact of this issue on student accommodation, the report, Student Accommodation: Demand & Supply, which was published last year by the Minister for Education and Skills sets out clearly that the demand for student accommodation outstrips supply in certain areas and will continue to do so in the coming years.
The full report can be accessed at http://www.education.ie/en/Publications/Education-Reports/Report-on-Student-Accommodation-Demand-and-Supply.pdf
There are 13 useful recommendations in this report some of which include capital financing, tax considerations and planning issues, as well as support for the rent-a-room scheme. The previous Minister for Education and Skills introduced two immediate actions to begin this work.
Firstly, funding was provided by the HEA to the Union of Students' (USI) in Ireland to progress short-term solutions for students in need of accommodation. This funding will allow USI to develop their homes.usi.ie website, to communicate more effectively to student and homeowners, and to carry out research into this important issue.
Secondly, the establishment of an inter-departmental steering group to oversee this work. This group will provide a coordinating mechanism to ensure that the higher education institutions have access to information on new potential funding and delivery models.
In addition to this, I should point out that a number of our Higher Education Institutions have Student Accommodation projects ongoing, or in the pipeline, with a number of additional on-campus Student Accommodation bed-spaces to come online from September 2016. Maynooth University have 296 new on-campus bed spaces, and UCD have 350 new on-campus bed spaces, which are due to come on stream in Autumn 2016.
In addition to this, five other Higher Education Institutions are currently engaged in, or going through the planning phases for student accommodation projects, namely National University of Ireland Galway, University of Limerick, Dublin City University, University College Cork and Dublin Institute of Technology.
Finally, my Department is also examining other potential options for funding projects in conjunction with relevant stakeholders.
97. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills his views on the necessity of providing third level education as close to students as possible, given his proposals on technological universities. [12394/16]
View answerAs the Deputy will be aware, the new Programme for Government outlines that this new Government will continue to support the creation of Technological Universities.
This is in line with the National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030 which provides a framework for the development of the higher education sector to 2030. With regard to the institute of technology sector, the Strategy recommended significant reforms to position the sector to meet national strategic objectives. In particular, the Strategy recommended consolidation within the sector and a pathway of evolution for those consolidated institutes of technology, to allow them to demonstrate significant progress against robust performance criteria and to apply to become technological universities.
The intention has always been that a Technological University would be distinctly different from traditional universities and institutes of technology by virtue of their mission relating to graduate formation, applied research and scholarship, dissemination of knowledge to meet the needs of society and enterprise with a very strong regional focus.
Regional Focus: There will also be a specific focus on the particular contribution the university will make to the needs of the region in which it is located. The development of technological universities has the potential to deliver greater opportunity to students in these regions, to staff working in the institutions, and to the broader local economy and society.
Consortiums who have applied:
As part of the implementation of the Strategy, the Higher Education Authority in 2012 published a four-stage process and criteria for applicant groups of institutes of technology wishing to apply to become technological universities.
The designation process consists of four stages as follows
- an expression of interest,
- the preparation of a plan to meet the criteria,
- an evaluation of the plan, and
- an application for designation.
There are currently four consortia engaged with the process to become designated as TUs. These are TU4Dublin (Dublin Institute of Technology, Institute of Technology Tallaght, Institute of Technology Blanchardstown), Technological University for the South-East (TUSE – consisting of Waterford Institute of Technology and Institute of Technology Carlow), Munster Technological University (MTU – consisting of Cork Institute of Technology and Institute of Technology Tralee) and the Connacht Ulster Alliance (CUA – consisting of Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, Institute of Technology Sligo and Letterkenny Institute of Technology).
Status of Consortia:
At the end of 2014, two consortia successfully passed stage 3 of the four-stage process. These are the TU4Dublin consortium and the Munster Technological University consortium.
In early 2015 the Connacht-Ulster Alliance also expressed an interest in merging and in applying to become a technological university. This application was approved to proceed to the next stage. In line with the process for designation as a Technological University, Stage 2 of this process involves the preparation of a plan by the Connacht-Ulster Alliance, to meet the criteria for designation as a Technological University.
With regard to the Technological University for the South-East, consisting of Institute of Technology, Carlow (ITC) and Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT), following the publication of the Kelly report, a preliminary facilitation process which was underway since September 2015, has recently been completed and a Report of the process was received by my Department on 13 May 2016. There was strong engagement in the process by both parties. This facilitation process has been an important building block in terms of building trust between the parties and in developing a strong working relationship between the Presidents and Chairs of both institutions. As part of this process, the Presidents of the two institutions, have jointly developed an initial work plan to support the development of a joint TU proposal.
In addition to this, both Institutions made a recent joint presentation and submission to the Higher Education Authority, seeking funding to underpin the next phase of engagement. This was part of the latest call issued by the Higher Education Authority regarding the restructuring of the higher education landscape. The call sought submissions for funding support in respect of the costs arising from mergers as part of the implementation of the National Strategy for Higher Education.
In relation to the position of the Technological Universities Bill, this Bill was at Report Stage at the time of dissolution of the previous Dáil in February 2016. I recognise that there were a significant number of matters raised in respect of the Bill at both Committee and Report Stage. It is my intention to now consult with all of the relevant stakeholders in relation to both the matters raised during the legislative process and the commitments contained in the Programme for Government.
Following the finalisation of this consultation process I will then advance the legislation, having determined a position in relation to any matters raised as part of this consultation process.
98. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Education and Skills to provide the details of the draft financial statements for all institutes of technology for the 2014-2015 and for the 2015-2016 academic years, including the amount of the deficit any are showing in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12395/16]
View answerDetails of the draft financial statements for all Institutes of Technology (IoTs) for 2014/15 are set out in the following table. The draft financial statements for the IoTs for the year 2015/16 are not yet available.
All the institutes showing a deficit, with the exception of two - Dundalk Institute of Technology (DKIT) and Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) - have reserves which can be used to meet their deficit. DKIT and WIT have submitted financial plans to the Higher Education Authority (HEA) which will see the institutions return to an operating surplus within three years.
The HEA are closely monitoring the financial position of all of the IoTs and in particular are working closely with those operating in deficit to ensure appropriate mechanisms are put in place to eliminate the deficits as quickly as possible.
Details of the financial positions of the Institutes of Technology according to the 2014/15 draft Financial Accounts are as follows:
|
Institute |
Deficit/Surplus |
|
Athlone Institute of Technology |
(€528,000) |
|
Institute of Technology, Blanchardstown |
€1,801,000 |
|
Carlow Institute of Technology |
€3,925,000 |
|
Cork Institute of Technology |
(€2,393,000) |
|
Dublin Institute of Technology |
€16,000 |
|
Dundalk Institute of Technology |
(€1,295,000) |
|
Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology |
(€2,463,000) |
|
Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art Design & Technology |
(€69,000) |
|
Letterkenny Institute of Technology |
(€1,345,000) |
|
Limerick Institute of Technology |
(€130,400) |
|
Institute of Technology Sligo |
€2,009,000 |
|
Institute of Technology Tallaght |
€357,000 |
|
Institute of Technology Tralee |
(€1,004,000) |
|
Waterford Institute of Technology |
(€849,000) |
99. Deputy Declan Breathnach asked the Minister for Education and Skills to investigate and respond to overpayments to a person (details supplied), where the miscalculations were made in error by his Department. [12410/16]
View answerI will arrange for the information in relation to this case to be forwarded directly to the Deputy.
100. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Education and Skills when he will establish a second level all-Irish school in north Kildare, given that the west Dublin option is over-subscribed; that there are seven sixth classes each year in north Kildare and that Dunboyne in Meath and Edenderry in Offaly are feeder schools; why it is necessary to again establish a demand for this school option, given that there has been an established pattern of students progressing to all-Irish secondary schools; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12454/16]
View answerThe new schools which will open in 2017 and 2018 to cater for increased demographic demand nationwide were announced in November 2015. At that time it was stated that a Gaelcholáiste to serve the North Kildare area will open in 2019, subject to sufficient viability of the Irish-medium Aonad, which is currently part of Maynooth Community College.
The Gaelcholáiste will operate under the patronage of Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board and An Foras Pátrúnachta. My Department officials will continue to work closely with the Education and Training Board and with An Foras Pátrúnachta in relation to the establishment of this Gaelcholáiste.
