Results 361-380 of 1,092,247 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Ciarán Cuffe OR speaker:Brendan Griffin OR speaker:Micheál Martin OR speaker:John Brady OR speaker:Rose Conway-Walsh OR speaker:Aindrias Moynihan OR speaker:Paul Murphy OR speaker:Mary Lou McDonald) in 'Committee meetings'

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Schools Building Projects (17 Jul 2025)

Helen McEntee: I propose to take Questions Nos. 85 and 87 together. My Department has a strong track record of delivery. Since 2020, we have invested more than €6 billion in our schools throughout the country under the national development plan, involving the completion of more than 1,400 school building projects. It has provided almost 100,000 additional and replacement school places,...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Schools Building Projects (17 Jul 2025)

Pádraig O'Sullivan: I thank the Minister and I would appreciate a list in writing. The reason I asked the question was not to come in here to backslap and say we were all doing great. I taught for 15 years. I was deputy chair of Cork ETB for five of those, and the rate of capital expenditure has been phenomenal in the past number of years, particularly in Cork. That has to be recognised. We have seen...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Schools Building Projects (17 Jul 2025)

Helen McEntee: I acknowledge the significant work that goes into any construction project. I acknowledge that, for a lot of principals in schools, this does not happen overnight. It takes many years of initial working with the Department to get that approval, identifying the design team, and going through the design stages and the various pieces of work that have to happen. Insofar as possible, the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Schools Building Projects (17 Jul 2025)

Pádraig O'Sullivan: I recognise that the Department is always proactive in my engagements with it. As an educator, though, I have concerns, and the Minister may have touched on something there. Cork ETB has a skill set that many voluntary schools would not have. While all schools are not under the patronage of Cork ETB, it has a specific set of skills. It might be worth considering in future that large-scale...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Schools Building Projects (17 Jul 2025)

Helen McEntee: We had a similar scenario in my constituency with the same company where there was a school almost built. I am pleased to say that, similar to the Deputy's own, the school is built and the students are there. It is a fantastic complex for them. We always need to look at how we can improve the structures that are there. There is certainly a level of expertise within our ETBs, but also...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Irish Language (17 Jul 2025)

Ryan O'Meara: After 14 years of education, it seems like the whole purpose is to get to the leaving certificate exam and to get as many points as possible out of it. That is the sense among a lot of students when they leave school. The instant the oral is over and the paper is written, they feel they are finished with Irish and stop practising it. The love of it and the whole point of why they are...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Irish Language (17 Jul 2025)

Helen McEntee: I mentioned a strategy that was currently being developed. The plan is to finalise that in the coming weeks. It builds on extensive consultation that took place at national and school stakeholder levels between January and May of this year. We met almost 200 participants at a national level and over 500 participants at school level. The consultation showed that, exactly as the Deputy...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Irish Language (17 Jul 2025)

Ryan O'Meara: The Minister has lined up my final point perfectly in terms of immersive experiences. Gaeltacht courses for student teachers are free for primary teachers but are costing post-primary teachers about €2,000 when they have to do them. It has been raised with me numerous times in Mary Immaculate College in Thurles by the staff and particularly by the students there. It is an obstacle...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Irish Language (17 Jul 2025)

Helen McEntee: The Deputy is right that the current requirement for the mandatory tréimhsí foghlama sa Ghaeltacht, the Gaeltacht learning periods for primary initial teacher education programmes, is the two-week placement. This is outlined in the Teaching Council's policy, entitled "Céim: Standards for Initial Teacher Education". The funding was provided for that in budget 2020. The grant...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions (17 Jul 2025)

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions (17 Jul 2025)

Question No. 84 taken with Written Answers.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Special Educational Needs (17 Jul 2025)

Special Educational Needs

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Special Educational Needs (17 Jul 2025)

Sorca Clarke: 90. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide an updated list of all primary and post-primary schools that have been sanctioned for an ASD class for the 2025-26 school year. [39382/25]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Special Educational Needs (17 Jul 2025)

Sorca Clarke: I want to ask in particular about the schools in which these works are ongoing but yet to be completed and by which a letter of suppression has been received.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Special Educational Needs (17 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: The NCSE is the statutory agency with responsibility for the provision of special education places. The NCSE has sanctioned 407 new special classes for the coming school year, of which 398 are autism special classes while three are autism early intervention classes. This brings to 3,742 the number of special classes in our schools. The NCSE has advised my Department that an updated list of...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Special Educational Needs (17 Jul 2025)

Sorca Clarke: I cannot accept what the Minister of State has said to me. I know what he has said to be untrue. I am happy to share information with him after this session. I have stood in a school in Athlone - Scoil na gCeithre Máistrí - that was approached by the NCSE to open a second ASD class. I stood in the classroom. The plaster was drying on the wall when the letter of suppression came...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Special Educational Needs (17 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: I assure the Deputy that the figures in relation to the number of classes being opened around the country are correct. On the individual school the Deputy mentioned, I am very happy to take the details from her after the session and I will work with her to try to get a satisfactory conclusion to it. I have no difficulty in doing that. I have to say that the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and I...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Special Educational Needs (17 Jul 2025)

Special Educational Needs

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Special Educational Needs (17 Jul 2025)

Roderic O'Gorman: 82. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if children attending a school (details supplied) who have applied for a place in a special school and have a letter from the NCSE that they are entitled to such a place will get a place in one of the two new autism classes being established in the school; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40455/25]

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Special Educational Needs (17 Jul 2025)

Roderic O'Gorman: Two weeks ago, parents of children who attend St. Mochta's National School in Clonsilla who have diagnoses and who have been approved for a place in an autism class were shocked to find out that, even though the school is opening two autism classes, none of their children was being offered a place. I have met the parents and the school leadership, as have other Deputies. A lot of work has...