Results 661-680 of 1,113,708 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Tom Kitt OR speaker:Peadar Tóibín OR speaker:Marc MacSharry OR speaker:Joe O'Brien OR speaker:Violet-Anne Wynne OR speaker:Thomas Byrne OR speaker:Thomas Byrne2 OR speaker:Norma Foley OR speaker:Peter Fitzpatrick OR speaker:Pádraig O'Sullivan OR speaker:Michael Collins OR speaker:Kathleen Funchion OR speaker:Johnny Guirke OR speaker:Matt Carthy OR speaker:Paul McAuliffe OR speaker:Brendan Griffin OR speaker:Ossian Smyth OR speaker:Dessie Ellis OR speaker:Dara Calleary OR speaker:Darren O'Rourke OR speaker:Johnny Mythen OR speaker:Alan Farrell OR speaker:Martin Heydon OR speaker:Michael Lowry OR speaker:Brendan Howlin OR speaker:Thomas Gould OR speaker:Marc Ó Cathasaigh OR speaker:Stephen Donnelly OR speaker:Duncan Smith OR speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice OR speaker:Helen McEntee OR speaker:James Lawless OR speaker:Robert Troy OR speaker:Jim O'Callaghan OR speaker:Seán Crowe OR speaker:Gino Kenny OR speaker:Danny Healy-Rae OR speaker:John Brady OR speaker:Malcolm Noonan OR speaker:Carol Nolan) in 'Committee meetings'

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (22 Oct 2024)

Norma Foley: Yes, absolutely.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (22 Oct 2024)

Jim O'Callaghan: I welcome the Minister and her officials before the committee. What appears to be the most significant part of the Supplementary Estimates is the significant additional capital allocation of €517 million in respect of the schools building programme. I very much welcome the significant activity on the part of the programme, not just in my constituency but throughout the country. The...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (22 Oct 2024)

Norma Foley: We have a forward planning unit within the Department and it is very successful. We now liaise with local authorities, for example, on their future projections. We also gather all the data that is necessary. It is a GIS system. We engage with child benefit and so on. As regards the figures we are talking about here, we have currently 350 projects on the ground at construction, and the...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (22 Oct 2024)

Jim O'Callaghan: How is the school building unit doing in terms of projects coming in on time and on budget? Sometimes we only hear of capital developments by the State that do not come in on time and on budget, but am I correct in saying very many of them do come in on time and on budget?

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (22 Oct 2024)

Norma Foley: 100%. We have a very strong record of being on time and on budget. I acknowledge the work of the planning and building unit and am here in the company of Mr. Loftus, but I also acknowledge the work of all those who work with the Department to ensure there is strong delivery.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (22 Oct 2024)

Jim O'Callaghan: The Minister mentioned already the provision of accommodation for children with special educational needs. I think I am right in saying it is now the case that any new schools being developed will automatically have special educational needs classrooms.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (22 Oct 2024)

Norma Foley: Yes.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (22 Oct 2024)

Jim O'Callaghan: What is the Department's role in trying to facilitate and assist schools that have been there for a longer time and may have difficulty in identifying space for SEN classrooms?

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (22 Oct 2024)

Norma Foley: In the first instance I want to talk about the National Council for Special Education and how we have expanded it significantly. We made provision in the previous budget for an additional 160 staff and that they would be specifically people who were on the ground, such as the special needs organisers who are engaging directly on the ground with the schools. We also see it now as part of...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (22 Oct 2024)

Jim O'Callaghan: This is not a question but a comment. I am not sure whether the Minister has had an opportunity yet to look at the new school on Harcourt Terrace. Harcourt Terrace Educate Together National School is an absolutely fantastic building. I commend the planning and building unit on it and hope to see the Minister out there shortly so she can see the benefit of the good work being done by her...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (22 Oct 2024)

Norma Foley: I thank the Deputy very much.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 26 - Education (Supplementary) (22 Oct 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Very good. That concludes the discussion. I thank the Minister and her officials for the constructive engagement at this meeting. That concludes our consideration of the Supplementary Estimates for Vote 26.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Message to Dáil (22 Oct 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: In accordance with Standing Order 101, the following message will be sent to the Clerk of the Dáil: The Select Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science has completed its consideration of the following Supplementary Estimates for public services for the year ending 31 December 2024: Vote 26 - Education.