Written Answers Nos. 842-853
842. Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Minister for Education and Skills the reason the school transport service of Bus Éireann has not yet arranged school transport for a group travelling between locations (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1549/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraUnder the terms of my Department's Primary School Transport Scheme children are eligible for transport where they reside not less than 3.2 kilometres from and are attending their nearest national school as determined by the Department/Bus Éireann, having regard to ethos and language.
Bus Éireann, which operates the scheme on behalf of my Department, has advised that it has not received applications for school transport from children residing in the area referred to by the Deputy to the school in question.
As in all cases, the terms of the primary school transport scheme apply. However, based on the details supplied, it is unlikely that these children are attending their nearest school. This can only be confirmed following individual applications to Bus Éireann.
843. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the date on which teachers will receive the increments they are entitled to under Haddington Road agreement. [1551/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe target dates for the payment of the deferred increments and arrears to primary teachers and special need assistants is 12 February and to post primary teachers on 19 February.
844. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Education and Skills the progress regarding the replacement of the current school building of a school (details supplied) in County Galway with a new building; when work will commence on this building in 2015; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1565/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe tenders for the project to which the Deputy refers have been assessed and the Design Team have sought clarifications from the lowest priced tenderer. On receipt of those clarifications my Department will continue to keep the school authority informed as the process progresses.
845. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Education and Skills the progress made to date in providing a replacement building in respect of a school (details supplied) in County Galway in view of the very poor state of the current building; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1567/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraI can confirm to the Deputy that the schools in question submitted major capital applications for extension and refurbishment to my Department.
My Department has been liaising with the school authorities regarding the schools long term projected enrolments (LTPE) and a revised LTPE for each school has recently been agreed. The Schedules of Accommodation have also recently been finalised.
In that regard a site visit to the schools in question was undertaken at the end of 2014. Once the site visit report has been finalised the projects concerned will be considered for progression into the architectural planning process.
As the Deputy will understand, due to the competing demands on my Department's capital budget imposed by the need to prioritise the limited funding available for the provision of essential additional school accommodation to meet increasing demographic requirements, it is not possible at this point to provide an indicative timeframe for the provision of an extension to the schools in question.
846. Deputy Timmy Dooley asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will arrange a meeting with representatives of her Department to include the senior architect and Clare County Council to discuss and address preplanning issues in respect of the proposed new secondary school in Ennistymon, County Clare. [1620/15]
Amharc ar fhreagra860. Deputy Timmy Dooley asked the Minister for Education and Skills the expected completion date for the transfer of lands in respect of a proposed new school (detail supplied) in County Clare; the reasons for the delay in completing the legal process; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1701/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 846 and 860 together.
As the Deputy will be aware, the religious congregation that owns existing school properties in Ennistymon has offered to transfer the properties concerned to the State as part of its offer made in response to the publication of the report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (the Ryan Report). The land in question, which the Government has agreed to accept, together with the lands already in the ownership of the Department, will be sufficient to meet the overall site requirements of the new school, referred to by the Deputy.
My Department through the Chief State Solicitor's Office is currently working with the Solicitors acting on behalf of the Congregation concerned on the legal procedures and mechanisms required to facilitate the transfer of this additional land. A technical assessment of the site has been carried out and officials from my Department have also been in contact with officials in Clare County Council to obtain the clarifications required at this point. Due diligence applies with regard to the above but I can assure the Deputy the matter is being progressed.
Once the necessary legal conveyancing process to facilitate the site transfer has been completed, a design team will be appointed to progress the project to planning stage.
847. Deputy Niall Collins asked the Minister for Education and Skills the schedule now being followed in respect of the proposed development of a second level school at Kingswood Heights, Tallaght, Dublin 24; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1646/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe project to which the Deputy refers is included in my Department's five year building programme to proceed to Tender and Construction in 2015/16.
The Design Team has been appointed and are working on the early stages of architectural planning. The Design Team are currently finalising their stage 2A report for submission to the Department. Upon successful completion of Stage 2A and subject to no issues arising, the project will then be authorised to complete Stage 2B, which includes the application for Statutory Approvals and the preparation of Tender Documents.
848. Deputy Niall Collins asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide an update report on plans to develop new accommodation in respect of a school (details supplied) in Dublin 24 currently located on the school complex on Knockmore Avenue, Tallaght, Dublin 24; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1647/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe building project for the school to which the Deputy refers is currently at an advanced stage of architectural planning. Planning permission was granted by the Local Authority. However, that planning permission has been appealed to An Bord Pleanála by a third party. My Department must await the outcome of this appeal before progressing the building project further.
849. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills the reason her Department plans to store PPS numbers of primary school pupils for 30 years; the plans her Department has in place to ensure the safety of this information; the number of persons who will have access to this information; the safeguards that are in place to ensure that there will be no breaches of confidentiality or data protection; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1653/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe current retention policy for Primary Online Database (POD) data is for records to be maintained for the longer of either the period up to the pupil's 30th Birthday or for a period of ten years since the student was last enrolled in a primary school. In future schools will no longer be required to keep the Clárleabhar therefore POD will be the official register of pupils in schools and data will be retained to allow pupils to obtain their records in the future. The Department's retention policy is for audit and accounting purposes as pupil's data is used in the allocation of teaching posts and funding to schools. The policy also serves to trace retention trends in the education system, is important for longitudinal research and policy formation, as well as being an important statistical indicator nationally and internationally. Aggregate and not individual data is used for the majority of these purposes. This retention policy has been agreed with the Data Protection Commissioner and the Department is continually reviewing its retention policy for pupil data in consultation with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner.
The Department takes the protection of pupils' data very seriously. Pupil data is stored securely in the Department's Oracle database. This database is hosted on the Department's servers which are located in the Revenue Commissioners data-centre in St Johns' Road. Access to the servers is protected by both Revenue and Government firewalls. Staff of the Revenue Commissioners do not have access to the data in the database. POD application roles have been developed which limit school staff to viewing and maintaining their own pupil records. Access within the Department to POD data is limited to the POD team which is currently less than 15 people. No agency or other Government Department will have direct access to the Primary Online Database.
As Data Controllers, schools are obliged to inform the parents/guardians of their pupils that some of the data they collect will be passed to the Department, explain the purpose that the data is being collected for and outline how long it will be retained for and how it will be stored. Parental consent is also required to answer the questions relating to religion and ethnic or cultural background.
850. Deputy Tom Fleming asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide details of all consultancy firms engaged by her Department during 2014; if she will also provide details of all the relevant fees paid to those firms during the period; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1665/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraInformation in relation to consultancy expenditure is compiled annually in respect of the previous year. The information in respect of 2014 is currently being compiled and should be available by the end of March 2015. It will be forwarded to the Deputy as soon as it becomes available.
851. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will intervene with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in order that third level colleges may be permitted to fill posts where they can do so within their budgets and in line with agreed salary levels without having to obtain approval from that Department. [1675/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Deputy will be aware the economic circumstances of the country were such that a staffing moratorium was introduced across the public sector by the previous Government in 2009. In contrast to other parts of the public service the higher education sector has been given significant latitude within this moratorium relative to other areas of public expenditure.
An Employment Control Framework is in place for the higher education sector which provides institutions with considerable flexibility to fill vacancies, through recruitment or promotions on the basis of meeting an overall ceiling of posts. Therefore Department of Public Expenditure and Reform approval is not required for the filling of core vacancies by higher education institutions.
852. Deputy John Paul Phelan asked the Minister for Education and Skills if extra special needs assistant hours will be approved in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Kilkenny; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1678/15]
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 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.
Where children have significant care needs such that they may need additional support to be able to attend school, the NCSE may make an allocation of SNA support to the school to assist that child.
The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support. The criteria by which SNA support is allocated to pupils is set out in my Department's Circular 0030/2014.
All schools were asked to apply to the NCSE for SNA support for the 2014/15 school year by 26 March 2014. The NCSE published details of their allocations for SNA support for the 2014/15 school year in June 2014. The NCSE completed a second round allocations for SNA provision for the 2014/15 school year in October 2014, details of which are available on the NCSE website, www.ncse.ie.
The deployment of SNAs within schools is a matter for the individual Principal/Board of Management. SNAs should be deployed by the school 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.
Schools who wish to make an application for additional SNA support may make such an application to the NCSE.
Schools who wish to appeal the level of SNA allocation which has been made to them may do so via the appeals process which is set out at www.ncse.ie.
All schools have the names and contact details of their local SENO. Parents may also contact their local SENO directly to discuss their child's special educational needs, using the contact details available on www.ncse.ie.
853. Deputy Noel Coonan asked the Minister for Education and Skills the position regarding a school (details supplied) in County Tipperary that has applied for an extension; the timeframe for completion of works; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1684/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe school building project referred to by the Deputy will provide for refurbishment of the listed buildings on site and an extension to provide overall accommodation for a 16 classroom school.
My Department has already secured planning permission for the project using in-house architectural resources. The next step in the architectural planning process is to appoint a full design team to complete the design of the extension and refurbishment works required. The tender process to appoint the design team is expected to commence shortly.
Due to competing demands on my Department's capital budget imposed by the need to prioritise the limited funding available for the provision of additional school accommodation to meet increasing demographic requirements it was not possible to include this project in the 5 year construction programme announced in March 2012.
School building projects, including the project for this school, which have been initiated but not included in the current five year construction programme will continue to be progressed to final planning stages in anticipation of the possibility of further funds being available to my Department in the future.
