Thursday, 30 Nov 2023

School Patronage

Questions (348)

Patrick Costello

Question:

348. Deputy Patrick Costello asked the Minister for Education to provide, in tabular form, a breakdown of parental preferences (details supplied) by school planning area for Dublin 2, 4, 6 and 8. [52950/23]

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Written answers

Minister for Education

The post primary school which was established as a regional solution for Dublin South City Centre is Sandymount Park Educate Together Secondary School.

Please see below breakdown of parental preference per prospective patron.

School Planning Area	Patronage	Parents Preference
Dublin 2, 4, 6, 8	Educate Together	1,210
	City of Dublin ETB	90

A breakdown of parental preference per individual SPA is not available.

Site Acquisitions

Questions (349)

Patrick Costello

Question:

349. Deputy Patrick Costello asked the Minister for Education to provide a list of sites acquired for second level education institutions aided by her Department since 2000, in tabular form, indicating in each case the total expenditure on the acquisition of the site, year of acquisition, address and relevant school planning area. [52951/23]

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Written answers

Minister for Education

Having reviewed the information to hand, since year 2000 to date, I can confirm that my Department has acquired 61 sites at a cost of circa €200m, to facilitate the delivery of second level education institutions.

All of the details requested by the Deputy are not readily available within a central repository in my Department. As the Deputy will appreciate, it would involve a very significant amount of administrative work to identify, retrieve from storage, and examine all relevant files in order to compile the information in question.

However, if there is any specific information the Deputy requires, officials in my Department will assist in providing it, while being mindful of the commercial sensitivities relating to the property market in which my Department continues to operate.

School Staff

Questions (350)

Réada Cronin

Question:

350. Deputy Réada Cronin asked the Minister for Education what action is being taken to ensure a second-class teacher for a school (details supplied) whose post has remained unfilled thus far this academic year; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [52965/23]

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Written answers

Minister for Education

Ensuring that every child's experience in school is positive and that they have qualified, engaged teachers available to support them in their learning is a priority area of action for the Government.

The recruitment and appointment of teachers to fill teaching posts is a matter for individual school authorities. In that regard, there are more than 3,700 individual employers (boards of management of primary schools and post-primary schools, as well as ETBs).

Budget 2024 contains a range of measures that demonstrate my commitment to continued investment in our education system.

A professional masters’ of education incentive scheme will be introduced for newly qualified teachers graduating in 2024. Those newly qualified teachers who graduate with a PME will, subject to some conditions, be eligible for an incentive payment of up to €2,000. This incentive payment will be paid to eligible primary and post-primary teachers in 2025.

An additional 1,000 posts of responsibility will be provided in the school system for the 2024/25 school year. This is in recognition that school leaders play a key role in improving educational outcomes by creating a positive school climate and environment as well as motivating and empowering educators and learners within their school communities.

These new measures are in addition to a range of targeted measures that I have introduced in recent times, including:

• At primary level, I approved 610 additional places on initial teacher education programmes for this and the next academic year (2023/24 and 2024/25).

• Ensuring initial teacher education providers created existing flexibilities that enable student teachers to support schools, either while on placement, or in a substitute capacity. In 2023, more than 2,700 student teachers registered with the Teaching Council and provided valuable support to schools as substitute teachers. This number is expected to be exceeded in the current school year.

• Continuing the operation of primary substitute teacher supply panels in 2023/24, with 590 teaching posts allocated to 166 panels covering nearly 2,900 schools. This scheme provides substitute cover for teachers employed in primary schools who are absent on short-term leave.

• Encouraging retired teachers to provide substitute cover. A communications campaign ran in early 2023 resulting in an increase in the number of teaching days provided by retired teachers of 49%, an increase of over 17,000 days between the 2021/22 school year, and the 2022/23 school year.

• Restrictions on job-sharing teachers and those on a career break from working as substitutes have been reduced.

Additionally in the area of Special Education, the Department recognises the importance of providing well-timed and appropriate support to pupils with identified learning needs.

• The Special Education Teaching allocation for mainstream schools provides a single unified allocation for special educational support teaching needs to each school, based on the educational needs profile of each school.

• Schools are front loaded with ring-fenced SET resources for the purpose of supporting pupils with an identified and recorded special education learning need. This allocation allows schools to provide additional teaching support for pupils who require such support in their schools based on each pupil’s individual learning needs.

• It is a matter for schools to deploy SET resources effectively to meet the needs identified in the Student Support Plans, which should be based on the continuum of support framework. Once the Department allocates SET hours to a school it is the responsibility of the school and the board management to utilise the allocation to meet the needs of those students with special educational needs. Special Education Teaching Hours should only be used for their intended purpose to support pupils with an identified and recorded special education learning need.

The teacher allocation ratio in primary schools is now at the lowest ever seen at primary level. The average student-per-teacher ratio in primary schools reduced by 10% between 2017 and 2023.

Teaching is an attractive career choice; starting pay for primary teachers is over €41,000 since October under the extension to Building Momentum. Over 3,700 newly qualified teachers have registered with the Teaching Council in 2023, with over 120,000 now on the Teaching Council register. The vast majority of sanctioned teacher positions are filled. The rate of resignation and retirement is very low by any standard and is consistent with previous years.

My Department continues to engage closely with education stakeholders to develop further, innovative measures to address teacher supply issues.

White Papers

Questions (351)

Carol Nolan

Question:

351. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Education the titles of the White Papers published by her Department from 2008 to date; if she will provide online links to these papers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [52976/23]

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Written answers

Minister for Education

My Department has not published any White Papers from 2008 to date.

White Papers are publicly available on: www.gov.ie/en/publications/

Departmental Consultations

Questions (352)

Carol Nolan

Question:

352. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Education the total number of consultancy reports commissioned or funded by her Department that have been categorised or designated as not for external publication from 2011 to date; the total costs incurred in commissioning or funding these reports; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [52995/23]

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Written answers

Minister for Education

Information in relation to consultancy expenditure by my Department is compiled annually, in respect of the previous year, and published online at: www.gov.ie/en/collection/department-of-education-and-skills-expenditure-on-consultancy/

School Transport

Questions (353, 354)

Sorca Clarke

Question:

353. Deputy Sorca Clarke asked the Minister for Education if she will reconsider raising the compulsory retirement age of Bus Éireann school transport drivers, who are currently required to retire at 70 years of age, given the current shortage of school bus drivers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53031/23]

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Sorca Clarke

Question:

354. Deputy Sorca Clarke asked the Minister for Education to explain the reasoning behind the differing retirement ages between school bus drivers at Bus Éireann and drivers working for private operators; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53032/23]

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Written answers

Minister for Education

I propose to take Questions Nos. 353 and 354 together.

The 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.

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. The number of tickets issued so far has already exceeded the total number of tickets issued in the 2022/23 school year. There has been an overall increase in both applications and tickets issued for the 2023/2024 school year in comparison to the 2022/2023 school year.

While over 90% of services are contracted locally, Bus Éireann apply stringent assessments of each individual driver on over 7,000 school routes. This includes vetting and background checks.

It is Bus Éireann company policy that normal retirement age for all Bus Éireann staff is currently 66 years. However, Bus Éireann part-time school bus drivers and drivers nominated by private operators who operate service as part of the School Transport Scheme may continue to perform in the role provided they hold the requisite license and satisfy an annual medical examination until they retire at age 70. This policy and criteria is applied to all drivers who provide school transport services on behalf of Bus Éireann equally.

The age limit on school bus drivers was increased to 70 years a number of years ago. While Bus Éireann have informed the Department there is no plan to increase the age limit further at this time, the matter will continue to be kept under review.

Question No. 354 answered with Question No. 353.

Departmental Advertising

Questions (355, 356, 357)

Ged Nash

Question:

355. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Education the amount her Department spent in 2021, 2022 and up to 27 November 2023 on advertisements with a website (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53049/23]

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Ged Nash

Question:

356. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Education the amount her Department spent in 2021, 2022 and up to 27 November 2023 on advertisements with two websites (details supplied), respectively, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53069/23]

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Ged Nash

Question:

357. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Education the amount her Department spent in 2021, 2022 and up to 27 November 2023 on advertisements with a website (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53086/23]

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Written answers

Minister for Education

I propose to take Questions Nos. 355 to 357, inclusive, together.

The Department of Education spend (excluding VAT) on social media advertising in the year 2021, 2022 and to date in 2023 can be found in tabular form below.

Year	Google	Meta (Facebook + Instagram)	X (formerly Twitter)
2021	€ 4,686.73	€ 24,939.15	€ 1,752.00
2022	€ 3,007.83	€ 9,780.83	€ 4,230.53
2023 YTD	€ 1,482.57	€ 26,067.68	€ 940.15

Question No. 356 answered with Question No. 355.

Question No. 357 answered with Question No. 355.