Written Answers Nos. 388-408
388. Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will supply a list of all Labour Court recommendations that have been issued in respect of his Department and organisations under his aegis that have not been complied with in full; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37751/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department does not keep a central list of Labour Court recommendations that have been issued in respect of my Department. Officials in my Department will arrange to provide the specific information sought in respect of my Department directly to the Deputy as soon as possible. The Deputy will appreciate that the information requested by him in respect of organisations coming under the aegis of my Department is not held by my Department, as most cases are dealt with by the individual employer organisation. Given that there are in excess of 4,000 individual employer organisations coming under the aegis of my Department, it would require an inordinate amount of administrative time to compile the information sought by the Deputy.
389. Deputy Tom Fleming asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will ensure that the productive assets of farm families and other self employed families are not factored into the assessment of income for the purpose of third level maintenance grants; if he will acknowledge the fundamental role played by the student grant schemes in supporting families by refraining from increasing fees and reducing grants as most families today are under huge financial pressures and should be assisted in every way possible so that their children will access third level education; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37780/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs I announced last December, the means test for student grants will be amended to take account of the value of certain capital assets as well as income for the 2013/14 academic year. The Deputy will be aware that a dedicated capital assets test implementation group was established to bring forward detailed implementation proposals on new means testing arrangements for student grants, to include the value of assets, for new applicants from the 2013/14 academic year. The report of the implementation group, which I expect to have shortly, will make recommendations on the treatment of various classes of assets. Any proposals in this regards will require Government agreement and necessitate legislative amendment.
390. Deputy Brendan Ryan asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide the current number of autistic spectrum units in North County Dublin; if there are plans for more ASD units to be rolled out in the area over the next few years; if there are details of such plans; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37800/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Deputy will be aware of the Government's ongoing commitment to ensuring that all children with special educational needs, including those with autism, can have access to an education appropriate to their needs preferably in school settings through the primary and post primary school network. This facilitates access to individualised education programmes, fully qualified professional teachers, special needs assistants and the appropriate school curriculum.
Many children with autism are fully integrated into mainstream classes. The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) provides additional resource teaching hours and special needs assistant support to schools in respect of fully integrated enrolled students with autism. However, some students with autism require further support in school. The establishment of a network of autism-specific special classes in schools across the country to cater for these children with autism has been a key educational priority in recent years. Autism specific classes are established with a staffing ratio of 1 teacher and a minimum of 2 Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) for every 6 children. Other SNAs may be allocated if required to meet the care needs of the children.
My Department supports provision in some 540 special classes for autism attached to mainstream and special schools and 18 special schools for children with autism throughout the State which cater for the educational needs of over 5,000 children with autism. These figures include103 classes for autism in Co. Dublin, details of which are available on the NCSE website. The NCSE will continue to establish more classes, as required.
391. Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for Education and Skills the position regarding recruiting persons with a disability; the number of persons currently employed in his Department; the number of persons with a disability who have been employed since 1 January 2011 to date in 2012; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37835/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department fully complies with all codes of practice in relation to the recruitment and employment of persons with a disability in the Civil Service. As at the end of December 2011, as provided for under Part 5 of the Disability Act 2005, my Department reported to the National Disability Authority (NDA) a staffing of 1,339 employees of whom 46 (3.4%) had a declared disability. As disability is subject to self-disclosure, all staff recruited into the Department are provided with a Staff Census Form (NDA Form S1) wherein they can declare that they have a disability. All completed forms are returned in confidence to the Department's Disability Liaison Officer (DLO) for statistical purposes.
Since 1 January 2011, one officer transferred into this Department and declared a disability. A further employee has acquired a disability since that date. No officer newly recruited since 1 January 2011 has declared a disability. My Department also fully participates in initiatives such as the Willing Able Mentoring (WAM) programme and in the Job Shadow Initiative (JSI) which aim to increase an awareness of disability within the workplace.
392. Deputy Dan Neville asked the Minister for Education and Skills his views on whether learners should have a seat on the education and training boards when they are set up to replace the 33 VECs; his further views on whether learners need to be represented on further education on the basis of equity, fairness and improving the quality of education and training services in view of the fact that learners are routinely represented on governing bodies in higher education and at school level through parents; if adult learners should also be fully represented at further education level; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37899/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraIn October 2011 the General Scheme of an Education and Training Boards Bill was referred to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Jobs, Social Protection and Education. The General Scheme was also published at that time. Following discussions with this Department and relevant stakeholders, the Committee prepared a report which I responded to at a meeting of the Committee on 25 January 2012. The General Scheme was then referred to the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel to the Government for formal drafting. It is hoped that the Bill will be published in the very near future. I have received representations seeking to provide a place for adult learners on the Education and Training Boards. Consideration will be given to those representations.
393. Deputy Nicky McFadden asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will confirm that eligibility for higher education grants will continue to be assessed by income only and not by asset value; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37900/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs I announced last December, the means test for student grants will be amended to take account of the value of certain capital assets as well as income for the 2013/14 academic year. The Deputy will be aware that a dedicated capital assets test implementation group was established to bring forward detailed implementation proposals on new means testing arrangements for student grants, to include the value of assets, for new applicants from the 2013/14 academic year. The report of the implementation group, which I expect to have shortly, will make recommendations on the treatment of various classes of assets. Any proposals in this regards will require Government agreement and necessitate legislative amendment.
394. Deputy Michelle Mulherin asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of primary schools that are bi-located; if he will identify all such schools; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37909/12]
Amharc ar fhreagra395. Deputy Michelle Mulherin asked the Minister for Education and Skills the policy that operates in respect of bi-located primary schools and their accommodation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37910/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 394 and 395 together.
My Department has developed an online inventory facility to enable schools to provide information about their accommodation, including information on their school site. To date 2,363 primary schools have completed the online Inventory on School Accommodation. Of this 2,363 schools, 70 schools have indicated that they are located on more than one site. My officials will forward this list of schools to the Deputy. In regard to policy that operates in respect of bi-located primary schools and their accommodation, my Department agrees to proposals submitted by schools to bi-locate to meet their accommodation needs, where there is no capacity in their existing premises/site to accommodate increased enrolments which require an additional teacher/classroom. In the case of schools proposing to amalgamate where none of the available school properties can accommodate the total amalgamated enrolment, the school authorities can propose a bi-location solution to facilitate the amalgamation and this will be considered by the Department.
396. Deputy Nicky McFadden asked the Minister for Education and Skills if a school (details supplied) in County Longford will be approved for a two-classroom extension; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37930/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraI wish to confirm that my Department has received an application for additional accommodation from the school referred to by the Deputy. The application is currently being assessed and a decision will be conveyed to the school authority as soon as this process has been completed.
397. Deputy Finian McGrath asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will support a matter (details supplied) regarding teaching qualifications. [37956/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraIt has been the policy of my Department for some time that only qualified and registered teachers should be employed by schools. Schools must ensure that teachers proposed for appointment to publicly paid teacher posts are registered with the Teaching Council and have qualifications appropriate to the sector and suitable to the post for which they are proposed. The qualifications of the person mentioned by the Deputy do not meet the requirements for registration set out under Teaching Council regulations. Once commenced, Section 30 of the Teaching Council Act 2001 will prohibit, by law, payment from public monies of people employed as teachers in recognised schools unless they are registered with the Teaching Council, subject to specific exclusions for very short-term cover which will be circumscribed by regulation. My Department and VECs will be bound by these regulations and will not be able to make exceptions in individual cases.
398. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Education and Skills if a student grant is payable in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37964/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe decision on eligibility for new student grant applications is a matter for the central grant awarding authority SUSI (Student Universal Support Ireland). Renewal applications will continue to be dealt with by the existing 66 grant awarding authorities. The Deputy will appreciate that in the absence of all of the relevant details that would be contained in an individual's application in relation to means, residency, nationality and previous academic attainment, it would not be possible for me to say whether or not a student would qualify for a grant. The student referred to by the Deputy is advised to submit a fully completed online grant application to SUSI via studentfinance.ie or to the relevant grant awarding authority to have her eligibility for grant assistance assessed. Further information on the student grant is available on the studentfinance.ie website.
399. Deputy Paudie Coffey asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will indicate which institutes of technology have joined together in submitting an expression of interest for applying to become technological universities, as phase one of the process should now be concluded as the six-month time period for making such an expression has now elapsed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37991/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraIn the document, Towards a Future Higher Education Landscape, published by the HEA in February last, a clear four stage process and criteria was laid out for institutes of technology who wish to apply for designation as Technological Universities. Stage 1 of the process required consortiums of institutions to submit an expression of interest to HEA within six months. The HEA will, having considered the system level implications of the proposal, advise, within a reasonable period (no longer than a further six months), as to whether or not the proposal may proceed to the second stage of the process. Stage one is not yet complete and I am not in a position to comment on the process . Several institutes of technology have however publicly announced the formation of alliances in order to apply for designation as a technological university.
400. Deputy Paudie Coffey asked the Minister for Education and Skills the progress that has been made to date in updating the junior certificate and leaving certificate cycles so that subjects such as politics and information technology will become part of both curricula; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37992/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe National Council for Curriculum and Assessment provided its advice to me on Junior Cycle Reform in late 2011. Since then, consideration has been ongoing in relation to the implementation of reform. Reform will be introduced on a phased basis. There will be a combination of curriculum components including subjects and short courses. Within their junior cycle experience, students will learn key skills and using ICT confidently across the curriculum is incorporated in the different skills areas. The introduction of short courses will allow schools the flexibility to offer courses in a wider range of areas, including politics and I.T., should they so wish.
Curriculum and assessment reform is well advanced in a number of senior cycle subject areas. It is not currently proposed to expand the range of subjects offered at senior cycle. In the current economic context, the priority is to progress and embed key reforms in Maths and the Physical Sciences. The curriculum in schools is devised on the basis that ICT is not a specific subject but rather a tool to be integrated into the teaching and learning of all subjects at both junior and senior cycle. The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment has developed an ICT framework which sets out a structured approach to ICT in curriculum and assessment. This sets out the types of learning appropriate for students during the period of compulsory education, and provides a guide to teachers for embedding ICT across the curriculum. Therefore, it is not time bound.
401. Deputy Paudie Coffey asked the Minister for Education and Skills the progress that has been made to date in introducing some course work that will be examinable on a continuous assessment basis for the leaving certificate and junior certificate; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37993/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraIn the context of JC reform the NCCA has advised that a portfolio with a weighting of 40% of the marks would be an inherent component of subjects in the revised Junior Certificate. I have accepted the NCCA's advise that a portfolio should be a key element of revised subjects. The implementation of this kind of assessment in the Junior Cycle is a considerable reform and the impact and outcomes of this will need to be considered before any changes are made in the high stakes Leaving Certificate examination.
402. Deputy Pat Breen asked the Minister for Education and Skills if a person (details supplied) in County Clare will be facilitated in respect of extra special needs assistant hours; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38009/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraI wish to advise the Deputy that the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), for processing applications from schools for special educational needs supports, including Special Needs Assistant (SNA) support. The NCSE operates within my Department's established criteria for the allocation of such supports and the staffing resources available to my Department.
All schools, including the school referred to by the Deputy were advised to apply to the NCSE for resource teaching and SNA support for the 2012/13 school year by 16th March, 2012. All schools have now been advised by the NCSE of their SNA staffing allocation for the coming school year. Details of the allocations which have been made to each school are available at www.ncse.ie. Where schools subsequently enrolled new pupils with special educational needs who were not considered at the time that these allocations were made, or where new medical conditions have arisen in the interim, schools may apply to the NCSE for additional SNA support.
I understand that the school referred to by the Deputy has recently made a new application to the NCSE for additional SNA support for the child concerned. This application is currently being considered by the NCSE and the school will shortly be advised of the decision in relation to this application. The NCSE allocates a level of SNA support for each school annually taking into account the care needs of all of the qualifying children enrolled in the school. SNAs should then be deployed by schools in a manner which best meets the care support requirements of the children enrolled in the school for whom SNA support has been allocated. It is a matter for schools to allocate support as required, and on the basis of individual need, which allows schools flexibility in how the SNA support is utilised.
403. Deputy Paudie Coffey asked the Minister for Education and Skills the progress being made in recent months in respect of the establishment of Solas, the new State training agency to replace FÁS; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38039/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraFollowing the Government Decision to create SOLAS, an Implementation Group was set up to prepare an Action Plan to implement the changes required to establish SOLAS. The Heads of a Bill for the establishment of SOLAS have been approved by Government. The Bill will, inter alia, provide for the establishment of SOLAS and for the dissolution of FAS. The Bill is being currently being drafted in the Office of the Attorney General and I expect to publish this legislation in the Autumn session.
In advance of the passing of the legislation a dedicated transition team has been established comprising of members of staff from FAS and the VECs to work on the change programme that will be required in the context of the establishment of SOLAS and the transfer of the FAS Training Division to the VECs. Integration projects are underway in Dublin and Cork as a means to identify in a real practical way the nature of the issues that will arise in the context of the integration of the VECs and FAS training centres.
404. Deputy Finian McGrath asked the Minister for Education and Skills his views on a matter (details supplied). [38052/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraIt has been the policy of my Department for some time that only qualified and registered teachers should be employed by schools. This is set out most recently in Circular Letter 31/2011. Current recruitment procedures direct schools to ensure that teachers proposed for appointment to publicly paid posts must be registered with the Teaching Council and have qualifications appropriate to the sector and suitable to the post for which they are proposed.
Only where an employer can satisfactorily demonstrate that every reasonable effort has been made to recruit an appropriately qualified and registered teacher, may an unqualified or unregistered person be recruited pending the recruitment of an appropriately qualified and registered teacher. This provision must be inserted in the employment contract. The employer must repeat the process to recruit an appropriately qualified and registered teacher within the period of any such contract and in any event within the school year. An unregistered person employed pending recruitment of an appropriately qualified and registered teacher at any point after September 2010 should have no expectation of continued employment beyond the period of time that it takes the school to source a registered teacher.
The Education (Amendment) Act 2012 was enacted on 23 May 2012. This Act provides for a number of education-related matters, including provision to enable the implementation of section 30 of the Teaching Council Act, 2001. Section 30 of the Teaching Council Act, once commenced, will prohibit the payment of persons employed as a teacher in a recognised school from Oireachtas funds where they are not registered with the Teaching Council save for very limited, exceptional circumstances which will be set out in Ministerial Regulations.
It is the intention of the Minister to commence section 30 during the 2012/2013 school year. Once commenced it will be an absolute legal requirement and current provisions under Section 3.3 of Circular 31/2011 will no longer apply. This will mean that an appropriately qualified person whose registration with the Teaching Council is pending at the time of appointment cannot not be paid from Oireachtas funds until he or she is registered. In addition, there cannot be any retrospective payment in respect of a period for which a person was not registered. This provision will reinforce the Department's long-standing position that education in recognised schools funded by the State must be delivered by appropriately regulated professionals.
405. Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will conclude the consultation between his Department and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in relation to the payment of a Labour Court recommendation which was decided on 27 September 2011 in view of the unnecessary hardship that is being caused by the non-payment of this amount in line with the Labour Court recommendation (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38059/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraI wish to inform the Deputy that the consultation process between the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and my Department is still ongoing. However, the matter is expected to be concluded in the near future.
406. Deputy Joanna Tuffy asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide a breakdown of funding from his Department to institutes of technology and universities from the State on a college by college basis and under the heading which that funding was made available in the years 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and to date in 2012; if any moneys were returned during these years to the Department as unspent; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38088/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Deputy may be aware my Department allocates recurrent funding to the Higher Education Authority (HEA) for direct disbursement to the Universities and Institutes of Technology. My Department also allocates capital funding to the HEA for disbursement to the sector, while my Department allocates capital funding directly to the Institutes of Technology.
A breakdown of funding allocated by the HEA to the sector is detailed each year in the HEA's published accounts. A table which shows an extract from the published accounts for years 2007 to 2011 follows. The 2011 accounts have been adjusted to reflect refunds of €5.9m made to my Department in that year. Also following is a table showing breakdown of funding allocated this year to date by the HEA and details of capital funding allocated directly by my Department to the Institutes of Technology for the years requested by the Deputy.
The tables are available in attachment Q406.docx at the top of the web page.
407. Deputy Peter Mathews asked the Minister for Education and Skills the entry requirement for third level education in respect of a family (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38099/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe entry requirements for third level education courses are determined by individual higher education institutions and the processing of applications is administered by the CAO on their behalf. My Department does not have any role in relation to the operation of the CAO or the admissions policies of third level institutions. Details regarding applying for third level courses, including information for those who reside outside the EU, are available from the CAO Handbook which can be accessed on the cao website at www.cao.ie
408. Deputy Finian McGrath asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will support a matter (details supplied). [38112/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Towards Healing Counselling and Support Service is a Catholic Church Service which provides counselling and related support needs to survivors of abuse by clergy, religious and others working for the Church. As the Deputy will appreciate, my Department has no function in relation to this service.
The State funded National Counselling Service, which operates under the auspices of the Health Service Executive, also provides counselling services to those who have been abused in childhood, with priority given to those abused in residential institutional care. Details of the service are available on its website at www.hse-ncs.ie.
