Written Answers Nos. 173-186
173. Deputy Brendan Ryan asked the Minister for Education and Skills if tenders have been invited for the completion of a campus (details supplied) from the shortlist of seven contractors; if so, the closing date for receipt of tenders from contractors; when work will recommence on site; the estimated completion date of the project; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20625/19]
View answerThe Deputy will be aware that the project to which he refers has been devolved for delivery to Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board (KWETB).
The contractor who is currently on site completing the external fabric of the buildings is expected to complete this work shortly.
Tender documents for the completion of the remaining works have issued to the relevant shortlisted contractors. A tender return date of 5th of June has been set in that respect. It is fully expected that the successful contractor will recommence work on site in early Q3 2019 and that the buildings will be available for occupation prior to September 2020.
174. Deputy James Browne asked the Minister for Education and Skills if circular 0071/2014 will be reviewed with a view to defining exceptional circumstances; if the circumstances and criteria for such exceptional circumstances will be set out; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20653/19]
View answer175. Deputy James Browne asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of transfers of teachers relying on exceptional circumstances in respect of circular 0071/2014; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20654/19]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 174 and 175 together.
Circular 0059/2009 set out the disciplinary procedures for teachers employed by Vocational Education Committees (VEC). A separate Circular (Circular 60/2009) sets out the disciplinary procedures for non-VEC teachers. The procedures were negotiated and agreed with the education partners in accordance with Section 24(3) of the Education Act, 1998.
Circular 0059/2009 was superseded by Circular 0071/2014 in October 2014 to account for the merger of VECs into Education and Training Boards (ETBs). Where an ETB is dealing with performance or conduct issues in respect of a teacher, the use of Circular 0071/2014 is mandatory. The procedures set out in Circular 0071/2014 may be commenced or ceased at different stages by the employer depending on the circumstances of the individual case concerned. The Circular does not set out exceptional circumstances and I have no plans to review this matter.
As the Circular does not set out exceptional circumstances, my Department has no information on the number of transfers of teachers relying on such circumstances. My Department does not hold information generally on the number of teacher transfers which may have occurred as a result of Circular 0071/2014.
It should be noted that Circular 0071/2014 has been withdrawn and has been superseded by Circular 0048/2018.
176. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will address a matter regarding a school bus route (details supplied) in County Kerry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20660/19]
View answerSchool transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department.
There are currently over 117,500 children, including over 13,000 children with special educational needs, transported in over 5,000 vehicles on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country covering over 100 million kilometres annually. The purpose of the scheme is, having regard to available resources, to support the transport to and from school of children who reside remote from their nearest school.
Under the terms of the Post-Primary School Transport Scheme, children are eligible for transport where they reside not less than 4.8 kilometres from and are attending their nearest education centre as determined by the Department of Education/Bus Éireann, having regard to ethos and language.
Children who are eligible for school transport and who complete the application process on time are accommodated on school transport services where such services are in operation. Children who are not eligible for school transport, but who complete the application process on time, are considered for spare seats that may exist after eligible children have been facilitated; such seats are referred to as concessionary seats.
Under the terms of the scheme, routes will not be extended or altered, additional vehicles will not be introduced, nor will larger vehicles or extra trips using existing vehicles be provided to cater for ineligible children travelling as no additional State cost will be incurred in covering the cost of providing school transport for children who are not eligible.
Bus Éireann has advised that the child in question is not eligible for school transport as he is not attending his nearest school. Bus Éireann has confirmed that this pupil resides 0.1 km from the route of an existing morning service. This pupil resides 2.3 km from the route of an existing afternoon service. In the afternoon, the service that drops off 0.1 km from this pupils home address departs before this pupil finishes school. The afternoon service on which this pupil is accommodated has a set down point 2.3 km from the pupil’s home.
The terms of the School Transport Schemes are applied equitably on a national basis.
177. Deputy Brendan Ryan asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of children that travel outside Donabate, County Dublin, to attend secondary school; the number of children that travel into Donabate to attend secondary school there over the past five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20661/19]
View answerThe information is not readily available in the format requested by the Deputy. However, the following information can be provided in relation to this matter.
As the Deputy will be aware, in order to plan for school provision and analyse the relevant demographic data, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas and uses a Geographical Information System, using data from a range of sources, to identify where the pressure for school places across the country will arise.
There is one post-primary school in the Donabate school planning area. Donabate Community College is a 1,000 pupil capacity post-primary school established in 2008, and has a 2018/2019 school year enrolment in the region of 760 pupils. At post-primary level, the average intake pattern in the Donabate school planning area over the last three years was some 90%. This suggests that a proportion of pupils who attended primary school in the Donabate school planning area did not attend post-primary school in the area in those years.
The Deputy might wish to note that such movement between school planning areas in relation to attendance at primary or post-primary schools is not unusual. A range of factors including parental choice, ethos, language, school location and commuting patterns can influence intake patterns.
178. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 216 of 10 July 2018, the status of the steps he is taking to secure a permanent building for a Dún Laoghaire Educate Together national school in order to facilitate the demand for places in educate together; when the permanent building will be ready; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20679/19]
View answerI can confirm Department officials are working to put a solution for the school's permanent accommodation in place at the earliest possible date. Unfortunately it is not possible to indicate a timeline for the confirmation of a location for the school at this point but I can assure the Deputy that the patron will be informed as soon as it is possible to do so.
179. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated full-year cost of 6,000 additional release days for teaching principals in primary schools. [20684/19]
View answerIn Budget 2019, school leadership is again supported with an additional release day for teaching principals in primary schools and a further four additional release days for teaching principals in schools with special classes. These additional release days - 18, 24, and 30 depending on the size of the school - will be effective from 1st September 2019.
This builds on measures in previous budgets, including €0.4 million made available in Budget 2018 to fund almost 4600 additional release days for teaching principals in primary schools. This funding provided an increase in the number of release days available to teaching principals in the 2018/19 school year to 17, 23 or 29 days depending on the size of the school.
Providing an additional 6,000 principal release days would cost in excess of €0.5 million.
180. Deputy Gino Kenny asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will meet a union (details supplied) to address the many questions that special needs assistants have regarding the 13 recommendations of the NCSE before roll-out begins; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20707/19]
View answerIn 2016, the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) was requested by the then Minister Richard Bruton to review the Special Needs Assistant (SNA) Scheme and to advise him on what support options are needed to provide better outcomes for students with additional care needs. Following extensive research and consultation with schools, parents, SNAs and other stakeholders, a report was submitted last year.
The review found that the SNA scheme was working really well particularly for younger children and for certain type of care needs, for example, mobility and toileting. It also found that a new and more widely based model of support involving both education and health supports was needed to meet the range of student need currently presenting in our schools. The review made a number of recommendations including the way SNA support is allocated to schools and the need to build school capacity through training. Overall, the Council recommended a new service model, the School Inclusion Model that would involve the provision of speech and language, occupational and behavioural therapies in schools and the development of a national nursing scheme to cater for children with the most complex medical needs. The overall aim of the model is to improve outcomes for children by ensuring each child receives the right support at the right time.
The Government approved a pilot of the new Model in 75 schools for the 2019/20 school year which will be independently evaluated. A budget of €4.75m has been allocated to support implementation of the Review findings.
Consultation will be a central feature of the development and implementation work. Over 50 people including SNAs and their representatives attended an information and consultation on 30 April 2019. Separately, there have been meetings with the union representing SNAs and other meetings are planned.
181. Deputy Gino Kenny asked the Minister for Education and Skills his views on the lack of job security for special needs assistants; if he will consider establishing a SNA panel modelled on the supplementary panels for primary school teachers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20708/19]
View answerThe National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible for allocating a quantum of Special Needs Assistant (SNA) support for each school annually, taking into account the assessed care needs of children qualifying for SNA support enrolled in the school. The number of SNAs employed in a school depends on the allocation given to the school by the NCSE, based on its assessment of the special educational needs of pupils in the school.
My Department has no control over the allocation process to schools and is not in a position to influence the allocation process in light of the fact that the NCSE is an independent statutory body. In considering applications for SNA support for individual pupils, the NCSE take account of the pupils' needs and consider the resources available to the school to identify whether additionality is needed or whether the school might reasonably be expected to meet the needs of the pupils from its current level of resources. SNAs are not allocated to individual children but to schools as a school based resource and allocations to all schools can change from year to year as children with care needs leave the school, as new children with care needs enrol in a school and as children develop more independent living skills and their care needs diminish over time.
In respect of job security, the supplementary assignment arrangements for Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) were established on foot of proposals brought forward by the Labour Relations Commission when the Haddington Road Agreement was being agreed. These supplementary assignment arrangements for SNAs continue to operate under the Public Service Stability Agreement 2018 - 2020 , and both unions representing SNAs, namely SIPTU and FÓRSA, have signed up to that agreement. As set out in the LRC proposals, the supplementary assignment arrangements for SNAs only apply to current SNAs who are notified that they are to be made redundant. Accordingly, the purpose of these arrangements is to facilitate eligible SNAs who are being made redundant by one employer in filling SNA vacancies that may become available in another school / ETB.
Once an SNA with a minimum of one year's service (service in a substitute capacity i.e. covering for maternity leave, sick leave, career breaks, job-sharing etc. does not count) is notified by his/her employer that s/he is to be made redundant then s/he shall be deemed to be a member of a supplementary assignment panel for SNAs. The detailed supplementary assignment arrangements for SNAs for the 2018/2019 school year are set out in Departmental Circular 0034/2018 which issued on 17 May 2017 and which is available on the Department's website at the following address:
http://www.education.ie/en/Circulars-and-Forms/Active-Circulars/cl0034_2018.pdf
The operation of this panel is described and outlined in Circular 0034/2018 and it is designed to be as flexible as possible which enables all eligible SNAs, who have the requisite Panel Form 1 completed by their former employer, to apply for any SNA position that is advertised by a school or an ETB with no sectoral, diocesan or geographical limitations imposed. Every eligible SNA will remain on the panel for two years with a view to getting further employment. If they are not successful over that period of time in obtaining a further SNA position then they will be eligible for a redundancy payment. Furthermore, an SNA may opt out of this supplementary assignment panel at any point in time triggering the processing of his/her redundancy payment in line with the terms set out in the SNA redundancy scheme (DES Circular 58/06) or any revision of same that is applicable at that time.
182. Deputy Gino Kenny asked the Minister for Education and Skills if information regarding to the way in which special needs assistants' bank of 72 hours should be used and on which tasks could be circulated immediately to schools nationally; and if these hours can be brought into line with those of teachers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20709/19]
View answerAll Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) are required to be available for a number of days at the start and finish of each school term not exceeding 12 in total. Under the Croke Park Agreement it was agreed to introduce greater flexibility to the use of these 12 days. Accordingly, DES Circular 71/2011 was issued on 15 December 2011 which outlined that these 12 days now equate to 72 hours (pro-rata for part-time SNAs) to be used by schools as an additional bank of hours to be utilised and delivered outside of normal school opening hours and/or the normal school year.
The scope of this circular is for all SNAs employed in recognised Primary, Secondary, Community and Comprehensive Schools and by ETBs. It doesn’t make any distinctions between any SNAs (whether standard or cover posts), except to provide for part-time SNAs only doing pro-rata Croke Park hours (i.e. percentage of the total 72-hours commitment).
While my Department published the Circular 71/2011 concerning Croke Park Hours for SNAs (a link to which is provided below), it does not get involved in the local management of how schools (as the employers) arrange the delivery of the hours from their staff (including SNAs). However, point 9 of Appendix 1 of this circular does provide possible examples (not an exhaustive listing) of the type of work that maybe undertaken by SNA’s to meet their Croke Park hourly obligations.
Link to DES Circular 71/2011 is as follows: http://www.education.ie/en/Circulars-and-Forms/Active-Circulars/cl0071_2011.pdf
183. Deputy Gino Kenny asked the Minister for Education and Skills if certain entitlements such as breastfeeding breaks, days off for children's college graduations, bereavement leave, assault and health and safety leave could be introduced for special needs assistants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20710/19]
View answerSpecial Needs Assistants (SNAs) are recruited specifically to assist in the care of pupils with disabilities who have additional and significant care needs in an educational context. They may be appointed to a special school or a mainstream school to assist school authorities in making suitable provision for a pupil or pupils with special care needs. The first priority is that the care needs of the pupils are met on an ongoing basis during the school year.
In accordance with the Education Act, the terms and conditions of employment of SNAs employed in approved posts funded by moneys provided by the Oireachtas are determined by the Minister for Education and Skills, with the concurrence of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.
Circular 17/2013 issued by my Department, deals with the Maternity Protection entitlements, including provision for breastfeeding and Maternity Health and Safety Leave for SNAs employed in Recognised Primary and Post Primary Schools.
Circular 32/2010 caters for Brief Absences and Circular 62/2017 deals with Leave of Absence following Assault for SNAs employed in Recognised Primary and Post Primary Schools.
184. Deputy Peter Burke asked the Minister for Education and Skills if an application for emergency works due to the urgent circumstances will be expedited (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20733/19]
View answerI wish to advise you Deputy that the main purpose of the Emergency Works Scheme is to ensure the availability of funding for urgent works to those schools that are most in need of resources as a result of an emergency situation or on receipt of an enrolment application from a special needs pupil. An emergency is a situation which poses an immediate risk to health, life, property or the environment, which is sudden, unforeseen and requires immediate action and in the case of a school, if not corrected would prevent the school or part thereof from opening.
In light of the above, the application received from Tashinny NS was not considered sudden or unforeseen and in that regard was refused. Also note, some of the works requested were outside the school boundary, which is not a matter for this Department to address.
185. Deputy Tony McLoughlin asked the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 155 of 2 April 2019, if there has been progress to date in resolving the discrepancy between pay scales for former FÁS employees that transferred to SOLAS whilst legislation was being enacted and that subsequently transferred to education and training boards, ETBs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20735/19]
View answerSOLAS staff who transferred to ETBs retained their existing salary scales on transfer. Union representatives have submitted a claim under normal industrial relations procedures in respect of certain grades, and this is still being examined by my Department.
186. Deputy Catherine Martin asked the Minister for Education and Skills his policy on the provision of places on school bus services by lottery; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20748/19]
View answerSchool transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department.
There are currently over 117,500 children, including over 13,000 children with special educational needs, transported in over 5,000 vehicles on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country covering over 100 million kilometres annually.
The purpose of my Department's School Transport Scheme is, having regard to available resources, to support the transport to and from school of children who reside remote from their nearest school.
Children are generally eligible for school transport if they satisfy the distance criteria and are attending their nearest school.
Children who are eligible for school transport and who complete the application process on time will be accommodated on school transport services where such services are in operation for the 2019/20 school year.
Children who are not eligible for school transport may apply for transport on a concessionary basis only and will be facilitated where spare seats are available after eligible children have been accommodated. Where the number of ineligible children exceeds the number of spare seats available Bus Éireann will allocate tickets for the spare seats using an agreed selection process, as set out below:
- First priority is given to all existing concessionary applicants (whether they had seats or not in the last school year) who have paid by the deadline date for payments and siblings of these children provided they also have paid by the deadline date.
- Second priority is all new applicants who applied and paid by the deadline dates.
- Finally, all other applicants.
Under the terms of the scheme, routes will not be extended or altered, additional vehicles will not be introduced, nor will larger vehicles or extra trips using existing vehicles be provided to cater for children travelling on a concessionary basis, no additional State cost will be incurred in covering the cost of providing school transport for children who are not eligible.
The terms of the School Transport Schemes are applied equitably on a national basis.
