Results 881-900 of 1,094,320 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Tom Kitt OR speaker:Anne Rabbitte OR speaker:Ciarán Cannon OR speaker:Johnny Mythen OR speaker:Bríd Smith OR speaker:Patrick Costello OR speaker:Pauline Tully OR speaker:Eamon Ryan OR speaker:Róisín Shortall OR speaker:Mary Butler OR speaker:Neasa Hourigan OR speaker:Patrick O'Donovan OR speaker:Kathleen Funchion OR speaker:Matt Shanahan OR speaker:Matt Carthy OR speaker:Colm Brophy OR speaker:Stephen Donnelly OR speaker:Pa Daly OR speaker:Joe McHugh OR speaker:Helen McEntee OR speaker:Mairead Farrell OR speaker:Catherine Connolly OR speaker:Joe O'Brien) in 'Committee meetings'
- 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)
Mairead Farrell: I welcome the €77.4 million. Any investment or apprenticeship is important. I welcome that more trainers have been recruited. I have seen the figures on that, but it confuses me that we are talking about 6,500 craft registrations in 2023 and then 6,800 in 2025. I do not think that shows ambition. Any way, I only have two minutes left.
- 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)
Mairead Farrell: I did not talk about the consortia ones, but I am talking about-----
- 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)
Mairead Farrell: I am talking about craft registrations because these are the people who want to build the homes we need. I welcome people doing all different types of apprenticeships, but to be honest I think it is a bit mad that we are talking about 6,500 craft registrations in 2023. Then the Ministers on the day of the budget start talking about 6,800 registrations as if this is massive growth. I turn...
- 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)
Mairead Farrell: But the TUs-----
- 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)
Mairead Farrell: If it is off balance sheet there is a mechanism.
- 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)
Mairead Farrell: I totally get that it is not without its complications. The Minister is saying everything is on the table, but in order for that borrowing for TU student accommodation to be moved off balance sheet, there is a process, and that process takes time.
- 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)
Mairead Farrell: Has that process started, or has it not started?
- 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)
Mairead Farrell: To what level?
- 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)
Mairead Farrell: Absolutely, it is literally beside my estate, but that is not really the question I have. I am trying to figure something out here. I could be wrong, but is it not that the review has to be done by the CSO and it then goes to Eurostat? Is that not the way it works? What stage is it at?
- 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)
Mairead Farrell: I totally get that but I am trying to figure out whether that process has started.