Results 641-660 of 1,085,844 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Michael McNamara OR speaker:Maurice Quinlivan OR speaker:James O'Connor OR speaker:Patrick O'Donovan OR speaker:Denis Naughten OR speaker:Emer Higgins OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív OR speaker:Simon Harris OR speaker:Pearse Doherty OR speaker:Matt Carthy OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív67 OR speaker:Cathal Crowe OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív46 OR speaker:Dara Calleary OR speaker:Marian Harkin)

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Current and Future Plans for Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (9 Oct 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: -----we had a backlog problem. We have invested heavily in that and cleared that backlog, as she is aware. The capacity in the system will allow us to deliver in excess of 30% more. With regard to the ETBs alone, the training capacity in the ETBs has increased by 34%, from 5,600 places in 2023 to more than 7,500 places in August 2024.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Current and Future Plans for Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (9 Oct 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: Yes. I do not have a breakdown with me of the backlog, but I can get it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Current and Future Plans for Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (9 Oct 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: The ambition of the Department is spelled out by me. It is spelled out in the quantum of investment we are setting aside to-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Current and Future Plans for Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (9 Oct 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: If the Deputy is talking about ambition and what the Department has done with regard to clearing the backlog, building capacity, employing more tutors, increasing more spaces-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Current and Future Plans for Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (9 Oct 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: -----with regard to growing the number of craft and other apprentices, it is clear we are making substantial progress in this area. The investment I have set aside for 2025 demonstrates that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Current and Future Plans for Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (9 Oct 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: To be fair, the Deputy has kind of contradicted herself there. She has welcomed the investment and acknowledged we have made significant progress with regard to the backlog. She acknowledged we have widened the scope of the number of apprenticeships available and the consortia-led ones.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Current and Future Plans for Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (9 Oct 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: I am talking about apprentices as a whole.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Current and Future Plans for Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (9 Oct 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: It could be all of the above. No decision has been made on it because it is a complicated issue with regard to how we increase the university sector's ability to borrow or to spend-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Current and Future Plans for Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (9 Oct 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: -----while having regard to the State's finances. Their borrowing capacity would have to go on to a national balance sheet.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Current and Future Plans for Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (9 Oct 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: We are looking at this and we have active engagement on a continuous basis with the technological university sector. We are cognisant and it was spelled out both in the budget speech and in my own speech with regard to where we believe the greatest impact on students is at the moment, which is accommodation. We hope to make progress on this in the not too distant future, but it is not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Current and Future Plans for Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (9 Oct 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: There is.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Current and Future Plans for Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (9 Oct 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: It is ongoing.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Current and Future Plans for Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (9 Oct 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: It is ongoing and, as the Deputy can imagine, the level of engagement we have is continuous. There is also a Eurostat issue we need to have due regard to, which we will. To be fair, if the Deputy looks at what we have done with the technological university sector over the past couple of weeks alone, it is clear there is a fundamental change with regard to how the technological sector is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Current and Future Plans for Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (9 Oct 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: The process involves the Higher Education Authority, our Department and Eurostat. It will have to involve the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform and Department of Finance as well because any change made to an entity that moves it on or off the State's balance sheet has, as I am sure the Deputy will appreciate, huge implications for the borrowing capacity not only of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Current and Future Plans for Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (9 Oct 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: I would call it an organic process of engagement. Since the technological universities were established, we are cognisant we want to invest a significant amount of capital in them, which we have done, continue to do and will do in the near future. The mechanism to do it will not be arrived at by our Department in isolation. A number of Departments and entities will have a say in that,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Current and Future Plans for Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (9 Oct 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: It can be recovered.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Current and Future Plans for Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (9 Oct 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: They will be notified and it will automatically come back.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Current and Future Plans for Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (9 Oct 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: Immediately. It is a provision for next year.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Current and Future Plans for Further and Higher Education: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (9 Oct 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: It is automatic.