Written Answers Nos. 551-566
551. Deputy Jennifer Whitmore asked the Minister for Education for an update on the extension for a school (details supplied); when a contractor will be appointed; the timeframe for completion of the project; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48640/23]
View answerThe project to which the Deputy refers, has been devolved to the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA) for delivery as part of a programme of school building projects. This school is in the bundle referred to as ‘Project Boyne’.
The project is currently at Stage 2B of the architectural process and planning permission has been granted. Upon receipt, review and approval of the Stage 2B report, the next stage is tendering for a contractor and then onwards to construction in due course.
It is not possible to provide a date for the completion of the project in advance of the outcome of the procurement process. The NDFA will continue to engage directly with the school authority to keep it informed of progress throughout.
552. Deputy Jennifer Whitmore asked the Minister for Education what plans are in place to address the pending shortfall of secondary school places for the Greystones area for the September 2024 intake; what engagement has taken place with the secondary schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48641/23]
View answerAs the Deputy may be aware, In order to plan for school place needs, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas and utilises a Geographical Information System to anticipate school place demand. Information from a range of sources, including Child Benefit data, school enrolment data and information on residential development activity is used for this purpose. Additionally, Project Ireland 2040 population and housing targets inform my Department's projections of school place requirements.
It is important to note that where enrolment pressures arise, it may not always be as a result of lack of accommodation but may be driven by the following factors:
• Duplication of applications – pupils have applied for a place to a number of schools in the area
• School of choice – pupils can’t get a place in their preferred school while there are places in other schools in the town/area
• Some towns/areas have single sex schools and while places are available in the school they are not available to all pupils
• External draw – pupils coming from outside the local area
Having considered the projected requirements in each school planning area, including the Greystones School Planning Area, my Department then makes an assessment of the existing capacity and identifies any requirement for additional provision.
Where demographic data indicates that additional provision is required, the delivery of such additional provision is dependent on the particular circumstances of each case and may, be provided through:
• Utilising existing unused capacity within a school or schools,
• Extending the capacity of a school or schools,
• Provision of a new school or schools.
My Department's main responsibility is to ensure that schools in an area can, between them, cater for all pupils seeking school places in the area. In relation to school admissions, it is the responsibility of the managerial authorities of all schools to implement an enrolment policy in accordance with the Education Act, 1998.
Parents have the right to choose which school to apply to and where the school has places available the pupil should be admitted. However, in schools where there are more applicants than places available 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. However, this may result in some pupils not obtaining a place in the school of their first choice.
There are currently a number of active projects at primary and post-primary level in the Greystones School Planning Area which will increase local capacity, including the following:
• St David's: A recently completed extension to provide for an LTPE of 750 Pupils
• Greystones Community College: New School Building to provide accommodation for an LTPE of 1,000 + 4 SEN Classes. Currently at Stage 3.
• Temple Carrig: Extension to provide accommodation for an LTPE of 1,000. Currently at Stage 1. A project for 4 Modular mainstream classrooms has also been approved. These classrooms are now on site and the project is nearing completion.
My officials are leading ongoing discussions with the relevant school patrons and authorities to put the necessary solutions in place for the 2024/25 and future school years.
The requirement for additional school places in the Greystones school planning area is kept under ongoing review. Additionally, my Department will continue to liaise with the local Council in respect of its review of the Development Plan with a view to identifying any potential long-term school accommodation requirements.
553. Deputy Alan Dillon asked the Minister for Education the steps she is taking to recognise a national school (details supplied) as meeting the requirements for a DEIS school. [48647/23]
View answerMy Department provides a wide range of supports to all schools, DEIS and non-DEIS, to support the inclusion of all students and address barriers to students achieving their potential.
Supplementing the universal supports available to all schools, the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) Programme is a key policy initiative of my Department to address concentrated educational disadvantage at school level in a targeted and equitable way across the primary and post-primary sector.
In March last year, I announced the single largest expansion of the DEIS programme. This benefited 361 schools. The programme now includes in the region of 1,200 schools and supports approximately 240,000 students. 1 in 4 students and 30% of schools are now supported in the programme.
This expansion added an additional €32million to my Department’s expenditure on the DEIS programme from 2023, bringing the overall Department of Education allocation for the programme to €180million.
Schools that were identified for inclusion in the programme were those with the highest levels of concentrated disadvantage as identified through the refined DEIS identification model, which is an objective, statistics-based model. Schools were not required to apply for inclusion in the DEIS programme and the model was applied fairly and equally to all schools.
The DEIS Identification process is based on the principle of concentrated disadvantage and the proportion of students from disadvantaged backgrounds within a school. The DEIS identification model aimed to identify those schools with the highest levels of disadvantage or the highest proportion of students from disadvantaged backgrounds within a school using the school’s enrolment data and national census data as represented by the Pobal HP Deprivation index which is publicly available.
A detailed paper on the refined DEIS identification model is available on gov.ie. In accordance with Circular 0019/22 schools that were not satisfied with the outcome following the application of the DEIS identification model to their school enrolment data were provided with the opportunity to have that outcome reviewed. The DEIS appeals process was applied fairly across all appellants, the window for appeals has now closed and the results are final. My Department will continue to support schools to deliver high-quality, inclusive teaching and learning to students and young learners.
The extension of the DEIS programme to new schools is just one component of work in my vision for an inclusive education system which supports all learners to achieve their potential. While the DEIS programme supports those schools with the highest levels of concentrated educational disadvantage, I also recognise that there are students at risk of educational disadvantage in all schools. Since June 2020, and over the past four budgets, I have secured funding to provide measures to support children in this regard.
My Department recognises the need to target resources to those schools who need them most, the next phase of work will explore the allocation of resources to all schools to tackle educational disadvantage.
The DEIS Plan is based on the premise that in order to have the maximum possible impact on providing opportunities for students most at risk of educational disadvantage, then extra resources need to be targeted as closely as possible at those students with the greatest level of need. This will involve further development of the existing DEIS programme, to create a more dynamic resource allocation model where levels of resources more accurately follow the levels of need identified by objective data.
To support this work my Department has invited the OECD Strength Through Diversity: Education for Inclusive Societies Project to review the current policy approach for the allocation of resources to support students at risk of educational disadvantage in Ireland, this is currently ongoing and the OECD team estimate that the review will be complete in Q2 of 2024. This review will provide an independent expert opinion on the current resource allocation model for the DEIS programme and, drawing on international examples, inform a policy approach for an equitable distribution of supplementary resources to support students at risk of educational disadvantage attending all schools, both DEIS and non-DEIS.
In addition to this, following the National Census conducted in April 2022, an updated HP Deprivation index has now been generated by Pobal. My Department is engaging with Pobal regarding this development and it will be thoroughly reviewed to inform future resource allocation aimed at tackling educational disadvantage.
555. Deputy Marian Harkin asked the Minister for Education if school transport will be provided for a child (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48675/23]
View answerThe School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the 2022/2023 school year, over 149,000 children, including over 18,000 children with special educational needs, were transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country.
In addition, school transport scheme services were provided for over 5,400 children who have arrived to Ireland from Ukraine.
The total cost of the scheme in 2022 was €338.9m.
Already over 134,000 tickets have issued for the 2023/2024 school year which is an increase of 12% when compared with the start of the 2022/2023 school year. This number of tickets has already exceeded the total number of tickets issued in the 2022/23 school year.
The Department and Bus Éireann are very conscious of the specialised nature of transport provision for children with special educational needs. This is reflected in the standard of dedicated service provided and the fact that these services are generally planned and timetabled to operate on a door-to-door basis. In certain cases, the Department also provides funding to schools for the employment of escorts to accompany children whose care and safety needs require this level of support while they travel to and from school.
Given the concerns regarding welfare of children with special educational needs, it is not always practical to make these services available to children who are capable of travelling on standard mainstream school transport services as to do so might diminish the level of care and safety that the Department and Bus Eireann wish to provide for these vulnerable children.
In the case, referred to by the Deputy, the child is currently travelling with other SEN pupils, therefore their sibling could not travel on the same service. As applications are not yet open for the 2024/2025 school year, it is not possible to confirm if the request to accommodate a sibling could be considered at this time.
Children who are attending mainstream schools may apply for school transport in accordance with the terms of the Department’s School Transport Schemes for Post Primary Schools. Applications should be made online to Bus Éireann at www.buseireann.ie.
Children are eligible for transport at primary level where they reside not less than 3.2 kilometres from and are attending their nearest national school, and at post primary level where they reside not less than 4.8 kilometres from and are attending their nearest post primary school/education centre as determined by the department/Bus Éireann, having regard to ethos and language.
Children who are eligible for school transport and who have completed the application process on time will be accommodated on school transport services where such services are in operation.
Children who are not eligible for school transport, but who completed the application process on time, will be considered for spare seats that may exist after eligible children have been facilitated; such seats are referred to as concessionary seats.
Because of the nature of concessionary transport for non-eligible children and the priority of providing places for eligible children, there may be an excess of demand over supply for concessionary places, in these cases Bus Éireann will allocate tickets for spare seats using an agreed selection process.
556. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Education when an appeal (details supplied) submitted to the School Transport Appeals Board will be processed and a decision reached, in view that it has been over seven weeks since the appeal was submitted; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48676/23]
View answerThe School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year, over 149,000 children, including over 18,000 children with special educational needs, are transported on a daily basis to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country.
In addition, school transport scheme services are being provided in the current school year for over 5,400 children who have arrived to Ireland from Ukraine.
The total cost of the scheme in 2022 was €338.9m.
Decisions made by, or on behalf of, the Department of Education regarding the provision of school transport services and/or grant-aid under the terms of the School Transport Schemes may be appealed to the School Transport Appeals Board. The School Transport Appeals Board are independent of my Department and the Board liaise directly with Appellants.
The School Transport Appeals Board have confirmed that an appeal in respect of school transport for the family referred to by the Deputy was lodged with the School Transport Appeals Board. Appeals are considered in date order based on the date of receipt the appeal was received. The Board will liaise directly with the appellants when the appeal(s) are due for consideration.
The School Transport Appeals Board have confirmed they have requested a report from Bus Eireann and School Transport Section of the Department of Education. When these reports are available the family will receive a copy of them along with the date their appeal will be considered by the Board (by e-mail).
At that stage the family will be given the opportunity to include any further information that they feel would be relevant to their appeal before it is considered by the Board.
557. Deputy Thomas Pringle asked the Minister for Education the number and details of contracts currently held by her Department with a company (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48655/23]
View answerI can confirm to the Deputy that my Department has three current contracts with the specified company. The contracts include provision of support in regard to Robotic Process Automation (RPA), the undertaking of IT audits on a co-sourced basis and licence costs for Unipath.
558. Deputy Thomas Pringle asked the Minister for Education the number and details of contracts currently held by her Department with a company (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48687/23]
View answerI can confirm to the Deputy that my Department and the Teaching Council of Ireland have a joint contract with the specified company. It was awarded in October 2023 to undertake a periodic critical review of the application of the Code of Practice for State Bodies in relation to that aegis body.
559. Deputy Thomas Pringle asked the Minister for Education the number and details of contracts currently held by her Department with a company (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48703/23]
View answerI can confirm to the Deputy that my Department has four current contracts with the specified company. Two of these contracts are for the provision of expert support in respect of the design, development, implementation and on-going improvement of shared services projects, the Esinet platform for schools and initiatives for my Department and the education sector. The other two contracts provide Database Administrator services and Microsoft SharePoint developer expertise for my Department.
562. Deputy Richard Bruton asked the Minister for Education if she plans to review the DEIS status of schools now that the results of Census 2022 have been reported; if she envisages granting a new DEIS status to any schools in the near future; how the disadvantage status of a person in homeless accommodation is assessed under the scheme; and whether this might result in the disadvantage status being misread. [48733/23]
View answerMy Department provides a wide range of supports to all schools, DEIS and non-DEIS, to support the inclusion of all students and address barriers to students achieving their potential.
Supplementing the universal supports available to all schools, the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) Programme is a key policy initiative of my Department to address concentrated educational disadvantage at school level in a targeted and equitable way across the primary and post-primary sector.
In March last year, I announced the single largest expansion of the DEIS programme. This benefited 361 schools. The programme now includes in the region of 1,200 schools and supports approximately 240,000 students. 1 in 4 students and 30% of schools are now supported in the programme.
This expansion added an additional €32million to my Department’s expenditure on the DEIS programme from 2023, bringing the overall Department of Education allocation for the programme to €180million.
Schools that were identified for inclusion in the programme were those with the highest levels of concentrated disadvantage as identified through the refined DEIS identification model, which is an objective, statistics-based model. Schools were not required to apply for inclusion in the DEIS programme and the model was applied fairly and equally to all schools.
The DEIS Identification process is based on the principle of concentrated disadvantage and the proportion of students from disadvantaged backgrounds within a school. The DEIS identification model aimed to identify those schools with the highest levels of disadvantage or the highest proportion of students from disadvantaged backgrounds within a school using the school’s enrolment data and national census data as represented by the Pobal HP Deprivation index which is publicly available.
The development of this model involved an extensive body of work by the DEIS technical group, which included officials from my Department, the Department’s Inspectorate and the Educational Research Centre. The model used information from the school’s individual enrolment database and 2016 national census data as represented by the Pobal HP Deprivation index. The expansion of the DEIS programme in 2022 was done on the basis of a refined DEIS identification model, which for the first time took into consideration the significant educational disadvantage experienced by learners who have self-identified as being of Traveller or Roma ethnicity, those who reside in centres managed by the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) and children who are experiencing homelessness. These cohorts were accounted for outside the HP index as it applies at small area level.
There is a wide range of research which highlights the negative effects of a non-stable home environment on the ability of children to achieve their potential from education. The loss of stable housing can be accompanied by a loss in possessions and a break-up of the social supports for children. This can lead to negative impacts for children moving through important developmental processes in developing relationship and learning social roles. The Department engaged with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (DHLG) and with the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive (DRHE) to enable the secure and confidential sharing of the addresses of this State-funded emergency accommodation. A detailed document outlining the Refined DEIS Identification Model is published on gov.ie.
In accordance with Circular 0019/22 schools that were not satisfied with the outcome following the application of the DEIS identification model to their school enrolment data were provided with the opportunity to have that outcome reviewed. The DEIS appeals process was applied fairly across all appellants, the window for appeals has now closed and the results are final. My Department will continue to support schools to deliver high quality, inclusive teaching and learning to students and young learners.
The extension of the DEIS programme to new schools is just one component of work in my vision for an inclusive education system which supports all learners to achieve their potential. While the DEIS programme supports those schools with the highest levels of concentrated educational disadvantage, I also recognise that there are students at risk of educational disadvantage in all schools. Since June 2020, and over the past four budgets, I have secured funding to provide measures to support children in this regard.
My Department recognises the need to target resources to those schools who need them most, the next phase of work will explore the allocation of resources to all schools to tackle educational disadvantage.
The DEIS Plan is based on the premise that in order to have the maximum possible impact on providing opportunities for students most at risk of educational disadvantage, then extra resources need to be targeted as closely as possible at those students with the greatest level of need. This will involve further development of the existing DEIS programme, to create a more dynamic resource allocation model where levels of resources more accurately follow the levels of need identified by objective data.
To support this work my Department has invited the OECD Strength Through Diversity: Education for Inclusive Societies Project to review the current policy approach for the allocation of resources to support students at risk of educational disadvantage in Ireland, this is currently ongoing and the OECD team estimate that the review will be complete in Q2 of 2024. This review will provide an independent expert opinion on the current resource allocation model for the DEIS programme and, drawing on international examples, inform a policy approach for an equitable distribution of supplementary resources to support students at risk of educational disadvantage attending all schools, both DEIS and non-DEIS.
In addition to this, following the National Census conducted in April 2022, an updated HP Deprivation index has now been generated by Pobal. My Department is engaging with Pobal regarding this development and it will be thoroughly reviewed to inform future resource allocation aimed at tackling educational disadvantage.
563. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Education the percentage of her 2023 capital budget allocation that was actually spent in the first nine months of the year. [48749/23]
View answerThrough Project Ireland 2040, we are investing at least €5 billion over the period 2021 to 2025, to add capacity and develop and upgrade school facilities across the country for the almost one million students and over 100,000 staff that learn and work in our schools every day. My Department has a proven track record of delivery, with over 180 projects completed last year within a challenging construction sector environment of high inflation, labour shortages and supply chain issues.
Key priorities for my Department are supporting the operation of the school system and adding necessary capacity to cater for special education needs provision, mainstream demographics and the accommodation of students from Ukraine and other countries under the International Protection system.
There are currently in excess of 300 school building projects under construction, including over 40 new school building projects, with extension/refurbishment projects at existing schools making up the balance. This is supplemented as required through the use of modern methods of construction, such as the modular accommodation programme, to meet additional capacity requirements beyond the aforementioned projects.
My Department has a strong track record of project delivery. In this regard, its capital allocation has always been under significant pressure. It has a strong track record of fully utilising its capital allocation, and in many years requiring supplementary capital funding, to deliver urgently required school building projects. While the Department’s original published NDP capital allocation in 2023 of €860 million had been expended by the end Q3 2023, an agreement was secured with the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform in April this year to extend the level of capital funding available for 2023. This agreement has been facilitating the continued rollout of urgently required school building projects in both mainstream and special education settings.
564. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Minister for Education if she is considering making changes to Circular 0054/2019, which governs parental leave; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48765/23]
View answerThe Department’s Circular Letter 0054/2019 titled ‘Leave Schemes for Registered Teachers employed in Recognised Primary and Post-Primary Schools’ details the agreed terms and conditions for the main leave types currently available to teachers.
Leave entitlements for public servants, including teachers, are determined by the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. Under Section 24 of the Education Act 1998, the Minister for Education, with the concurrence of the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, is authorised to determine the terms and conditions of employment for teachers employed in approved teaching posts funded by monies provided by the Oireachtas.
Any changes to the current leave provisions available to teachers requires consultation with the Teachers Conciliation Council (TCC). The TCC forms part of the Scheme of Conciliation and Arbitration for Teachers, the purpose of which is to provide a forum for claims and proposals relating to the salary, and other terms & conditions of service for teachers. The Council is comprised of representatives from the Teacher Unions, the School Management Bodies, the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform, and the Department of Education. The TCC is independently chaired by an official of the Workplace Relations Commission.
Education stakeholders will be notified of any amendments to the leave schemes contained in Circular Letter 0054/2019.
