Results 721-740 of 1,083,598 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Tom Kitt OR speaker:Marc Ó Cathasaigh OR speaker:Aodhán Ó Ríordáin OR speaker:Dara Calleary OR speaker:Leo Varadkar OR speaker:Sorca Clarke OR speaker:Michael Lowry OR speaker:Matt Shanahan OR speaker:Colm Burke OR speaker:Roderic O'Gorman OR speaker:James Lawless OR speaker:Danny Healy-Rae OR speaker:Neasa Hourigan OR speaker:Pat Buckley OR speaker:Marian Harkin OR speaker:Pippa Hackett OR speaker:Gerald Nash OR speaker:Denis Naughten OR speaker:Thomas Gould OR speaker:Mary Butler OR speaker:Alan Dillon OR speaker:Patrick O'Donovan OR speaker:Emer Higgins OR speaker:David Cullinane OR speaker:Francis Noel Duffy OR speaker:Thomas Byrne)

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 Senator is denying the fact that there are hundreds of millions of euro in existing commitments from the Department already going into universities. This is to increase the funding. To suggest that it is somehow ground zero is not a fair representation, as I think even the Senator would agree.

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 only commitment that has ever been made with regard to a timeframe around when the gap will finally be closed is in this budget because it was the only basis on which there was a multi-annual funding model on which to base it. Up to then, it was on the basis of going in and trying to fight for each individual budget. That is now no longer the case and the universities are very happy...

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: Do not provoke him.

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 have often attended committee meetings with the Department of Finance or the respective line Departments over Estimates. There will be a Supplementary Estimate – there always is – and the Department is in discussions with the Departments of public expenditure and reform and Finance.

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 was at University College Cork recently where this matter was raised with me. I was told that some of the apparatuses that I had trained on 30 years ago when I studied chemistry had not changed a whole pile, but the world has changed a great deal. Many of our universities have relied on foundations, philanthropy and industry. We acknowledge that. It is not where we would like to be, but...

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 does, but I wanted to refer to the sciences.

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 capital research devolved grants for 2023 amounted to €15 million and to €25 million for 2024, so they have increased substantially. I do not have the date, but it will be soon. We have gone through this process with the HEA. I hope to be in a position to have favourable news this month. No less than was the case with veterinary training, we take our guidance as a...

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: Was it not the right decision to set up a Department on its own, so?

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: Give it to a Fine Gael Minister.

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: My view on this is simple: if technological universities are to attract research and philanthropic development and if they are to be drivers of economic development in their areas, they need to have access to academic staff, and that must include professorships. We are in active discussions with the Department of public expenditure and reform on this matter. We hope to be in a position 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: Yes. The representatives of the people who teach in the universities are also critical to the issue, and we engage with them regularly. I am confident that we will get sanction for this from the Department of public expenditure and reform soon.

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, unless the Senator knows something I do 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: The establishment of new leadership structures and the organisational review process have been progressing in each of the TUs and a business case has been submitted to our Department. The Department supports a sectoral approach to the development of senior management teams across the five TUs. Such an approach is vital. We have been engaging with the Department of public expenditure and...

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: Wexford County Council is progressing the acquisition of the preferred site by way of compulsory purchase. The intention is for a portion of the site to be used to facilitate a new Wexford campus. The HEA recently received a business case from SETU outlining the proposed infrastructure. That business case will require evaluation. Regarding SETU Waterford, final contracts for the...

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 will have to revert to the Senator regarding the Confucius Institutes. He and I have constructively debated in the Seanad the importance of academic autonomy, which Senator Mullen will ask me about shortly, the autonomous nature of the higher education institutes and where the Government begins and ends where they are concerned. Recent weeks have raised interesting questions about where...

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: Since 2023, my Department has been engaging with the research and innovation community on this matter. We promote the concepts of due diligence, proper risk management and ensuring that international co-operation is properly risk-checked but at the same time I would be loath to say - I know this is not what the Deputy is saying - that international co-operation is something that we should all...

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 the budget, I thank Deputy O'Sullivan for acknowledging the positive in it. The budget for last year versus this year for apprenticeships has gone up by €10 million. Obviously, the backlog is a huge issue that we are concerned about but, as has been acknowledged by all parties, we have made a huge amount of progress on it. Eighty-seven instructors were recruited, with...

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 only one, which is pipefitting, which is significantly longer than four years. That is only 1% of the apprenticeships. I am not in any way saying that is not something that we want to make progress on. On what the Deputy said about female participation, 8% of the total apprenticeship population at present are women. It is an improvement but it is not where we want to be. We,...

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 will. We can email it to the Deputy afterwards.

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 CAO is a great leveller in the sense that it is totally anonymous. It does not say that one went to Glanmire secondary school or that one went to a school in the South Mall or wherever. It is a great leveller. It is totally anonymous. It does what it says on the tin. It gives everybody, based on a unique identifier, an opportunity to go to university or to pursue a career for...