Tuesday, 10 Feb 2015

Written Answers Nos. 528-42

Home Tuition Scheme

Questions (528)

Stephen Donnelly

Question:

528. Deputy Stephen S. Donnelly asked the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 488 of 27 January 2015, where she stated that the home tuition was operated in a consistent and equitable manner, the reason her Department agreed to pay 48 hours at the higher qualified rate to one company per letter dated 3 October 2013, and agreed to pay another company a lower amount of only 20 hours at the higher rate in a letter sent on 23 September 2013 (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5879/15]

Written answers

Minister for Education and Skills

I wish to inform the Deputy that it is, in my view, reasonable to conclude that the Department has maintained a consistent position in relation to the development of group arrangements and direct payment arrangements for home tuition and that the scheme is operated in a consistent and equitable manner.The rates agreed between my Department and a number of providers in 2013/2014 represents significant value for money. The rate agreed with one provider in 2008 is subject to review and my Department will decide if and when such a review should be undertaken.

Special Educational Needs Service Provision

Questions (529)

Brendan Griffin

Question:

529. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Education and Skills her views on a matter (details supplied) regarding special educational needs provision; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5887/15]

Written answers

Minister for Education and Skills

Budget 2015 included an increase in spending on education for the first time in recent years, amounting to additional funding of €60m during 2015.

This funding will be used to provide 1,700 additional teachers and SNAs for our schools, as well as to fund prioritised reforms, such as implementation of the literacy and numeracy strategy, reform of junior cycle, and the introduction of education focussed preschool inspections. It was not possible to also secure the funding which would have been required to change the staffing schedule for schools.

With regard to Resource Teachers for Travellers, the principle of inclusion is at the core of the Report and Recommendations for a Traveller Education Strategy published in 2006 and, accordingly, the focus of both current and future provision is on the development of a more inclusive school environment. In keeping with this principle, additional resources provided in the education system are allocated on the basis of identified individual educational need rather than that of ethnic or cultural background.

Following decisions of the last Government, as part of the December 2010 budgetary process, Traveller pupils who are eligible for learning support teaching now receive this tuition through the existing learning support provision in schools. This is in keeping with the policy of inclusion and the 2006 report.

The General Allocation Model, which provides additional learning support and English as an additional language allocations for primary schools, was updated for all primary schools from the 2012/13 school year and now includes the Traveller pupils who had previously been supported by Resource Teacher for Traveller (RTT) posts under the General Allocation Model.

Limited alleviation measures were put in place to assist schools who had high concentrations of Traveller pupils previously supported by Resource Teacher for Traveller posts/hours, in the context of the limited resources available.

Provision for English Language Support posts is now provided for under the General Allocation Model for schools, while further additional temporary language support posts provided on the basis of appeals to the Staffing Appeals Boards. The appeal criteria are set out in the published staffing arrangements.

It should be noted that there has been no overall reduction to the level of investment being provided to support children with special educational needs in our schools. On the contrary, the number of SNA and Resource Teaching post being allocated to support children with special educational needs has increased in recent years to reflect demographic growth and increased demand in this area.

This Government has been resolutely committed to protecting, and where possible, increasing, the level of investment being made to support children with special educational needs at a time when there has been a requirement to make expenditure reductions across a range of areas. It is an area of spending which has been prioritised above most other areas by this Government, despite the enormous pressures on all areas of public spending.

Some €1.37 billion will be spent in support of children with Special Educational Needs this year, which represents approximately 15% of my Department's budget.

365 new Special Needs Assistant (SNA) posts and 480 resource teaching posts have been provided to support children with special educational needs in schools in 2015, bringing the total number of SNAs available for allocation in 2015 to 11,330 posts and the total number of resource teaching posts to 6,705. Over 11,000 resource and learning support teaching posts are now available. This is the highest level of SNA and resource teaching allocations that we have ever had, and will ensure that children with special educational needs can continue to participate in education and be supported in a manner appropriate to their needs.

With regard to the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs (EPSEN) Act, a number of sections have been commenced, including those establishing the National Council for Special Education and those promoting an inclusive approach to education of children.

The NCSE report on 'Supporting Students with Special Educational Needs in Schools' which was published in 2013 and is available on the NCSE website www.ncse.ie, recommends that the EPSEN Act be fully implemented as soon as possible. The report also states that the NCSE recognises that the current economic climate makes it unlikely that the Government will be able to implement this recommendation in the short to medium term.

It is therefore intended to bring into effect many of the good ideas contained in the EPSEN Act, on a non-statutory basis initially, through policy developments across a range of areas, in conjunction with NCSE policy advice.

This includes the National Council for Special Education's (NCSE) Report on a Proposed New Model for Allocating Teachers for Students with Special Educational Needs, published on 18th June 2014.

I hope to make an announcement in relation to this report shortly, in order to give clarity to schools regarding the allocation process for the coming school year.

Student Grant Scheme Eligibility

Questions (530)

Charlie McConalogue

Question:

530. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills if Student Universal Support Ireland can assess a person (details supplied) as an independent student, in view of their circumstances; her plans to introduce discretionary measures in order to avoid situations like this in the future; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5895/15]

Written answers

Minister for Education and Skills

For student grants purposes, students are categorised according to their circumstances either as students dependent on parents or a legal guardian, or as independent mature students.

A student may be assessed as an independent mature student if he or she has attained the age of 23 on the 1st of January of the year of first entry to an approved course or of re-entry following a break in studies of at least three years and is not ordinarily resident with his/her parents from the previous October. Otherwise he or she would continue to be assessed on the basis of parental income.

Only in exceptional cases, where compelling evidence of estrangement from parents/guardians is provided, can candidates who are under 23 be assessed without reference to their parents/guardians income or address, Article 21(3) (b) of the Scheme refers.

The assessment of a case of estrangement is carefully considered to ensure there is sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the exceptional circumstances pertaining in such cases genuinely exists. The type of evidence required is dependent on the applicant's individual circumstances.

Student Grant Scheme Applications

Questions (531)

Michael Lowry

Question:

531. Deputy Michael Lowry asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will allow a late student grant application in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Tipperary in view of the personal circumstances involved; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5907/15]

Written answers

Minister for Education and Skills

It is the responsibility of the student to ensure that their application for a student grant is submitted before the deadline.

The national student grant awarding body, SUSI (Student Universal Support Ireland), opened its online application system for the 2014/2015 academic year on 8 May, 2014 with the closing date further extended to 06 November 2014. Late applications may be accepted by SUSI, where a student has had an exceptional change of circumstances as outlined in Article 32 of the Student Grant Scheme 2014; provided such application is not later than one month before the end of the academic year to which the application relates. All requests for late applications are examined and considered on a case-by-case basis. In accepting a late application, SUSI will have established that an exceptional change of circumstance has occurred and will have considered why the request was not made before the deadlines. The student referred to by the Deputy may contact SUSI support desk at 076-108 7874 to enquire about making a late application for the 2014/15 academic year where exceptional change of circumstances have occurred.

Schools Designation

Questions (532)

Jonathan O'Brien

Question:

532. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if her attention has been drawn to the fact that a number of schools (details supplied) in Dublin 10 have been provided with pre-approval to change their status, so that they can accept boys for admission after first class; if she approved this change; if her further attention has been drawn to the fact that a survey carried out in all the schools returned findings of 74% of parents who were against the introduction of co-education; if her attention was drawn to this when she approved this change; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5928/15]

Written answers

Minister for Education and Skills

I wish to advise the Deputy that, to date, my Department has not received an application from the Patron to change the status of the schools concerned. Consequently, approval to change the schools' status has not been given by my Department. I understand that the Patron's office wrote to the Boards of Management of the four schools concerned last December indicating that the proposal to re-organise the schools from September 2015 will not be progressed. I understand also that the Patron indicated to the Boards that the three schools on the same campus may apply to the Patron for a change of status for September 2015 and that any change would be introduced on a phased basis. The Patron's office also advised that no change would be made to the school which is located on another site for the next three years and that the pupil enrolment at that school is to be kept under review during this period.

Schools Designation

Questions (533)

Olivia Mitchell

Question:

533. Deputy Olivia Mitchell asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will respond positively to correspondence from eight schools (details supplied) who seek to have the catchment area for the new Educate Together secondary school expanded to reflect the coherence of the area between the county boundary and the motorway; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5942/15]

Written answers

Minister for Education and Skills

My Department has recently received the correspondence referred to by the Deputy and a response will issue when the matter has been considered.

Child Abuse

Questions (534)

Billy Kelleher

Question:

534. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Education and Skills the State's legal reasoning (details supplied) behind the decision to only allow those who were abused after the date a complaint was made regarding a teacher to be entitled to compensation, leaving those abuse victims, who for whatever reason did not come forward or did so too late, without any acknowledgement by the State of what was done to them, and thereby leaving them without any entitlement to compensation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5951/15]

Written answers

Minister for Education and Skills

In its response to the ECHR judgment, the Government agreed that out of court settlements be offered to those bringing cases of school child sexual abuse against the State where the cases come within the terms of the ECHR Decision and satisfy the Statute of Limitations. In pursuing settlements, the State Claims Agency will be considering cases of school child sexual abuse where there was a prior complaint about the teacher concerned to school authorities. The rationale for this approach is that these were the circumstances on which the European Court of Human Rights judgment was based.

Child Abuse

Questions (535)

Billy Kelleher

Question:

535. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Education and Skills , in view of the Government's decision before Christmas 2014 to offer a settlement to those who were abused in school (details supplied), if she will provide information on the exact number of the 135 claims that were formally discontinued, as she referred to them, through the State Claims Agency; the number of the 135 cases, following examination by the State Claims Agency, that will be eligible for settlement; if the information is not available, the length of time it will take; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5953/15]

Written answers

Minister for Education and Skills

When announcing details of the Government decision to seek to settle certain claims of school child sexual abuse that came within the parameters of the European Court of Human Rights judgment, I noted that there was also a group of school child sexual abuse cases which had not been progressed for a number of reasons, including those which might have been discontinued after receiving letters from the State Claims Agency. The Agency has been reviewing these cases to clarify the exact position and whether they had been formally discontinued or not. I expect to be in a position to report to Government on this matter shortly at which time the Government will consider whether any measures will be taken in relation to these cases.

Schools Amalgamation

Questions (536)

Martin Ferris

Question:

536. Deputy Martin Ferris asked the Minister for Education and Skills her plans regarding the much needed amalgamation of schools (details supplied) in County Kerry; and when will funding be provided for such works. [5970/15]

Written answers

Minister for Education and Skills

An application in relation to the proposed amalgamation of schools referred to by the Deputy has recently being received by my Department. This proposal is currently under consideration and officials from my Department will be in contact with the Management Authority of the schools concerned shortly.

Departmental Records

Questions (537)

Billy Kelleher

Question:

537. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Education and Skills her views on concerns (details supplied) regarding information being sought by her Department. [5973/15]

Written answers

Minister for Education and Skills

The Department of Education and Skills has consulted with the Data Protection Commissioner in relation to the collection of information on pupil ethnic or cultural background on the Primary Online Database. Some categories of ethnic or cultural background are required for international reporting purposes and in mainstream schools for enhanced capitation payments. The Data Protection Commissioner advises that the most equitable way to collect this type of sensitive information is to give all pupils an opportunity to identify their own ethnic and cultural background and consent to the information being passed to the Department, rather than targeting a particular ethnic or cultural group in the data collection, and so we have proceeded with the question on that basis. The question on Ethnic and Cultural background is not compulsory and parents have the option to choose no consent to answer the question.

We are committed to reviewing the questions asked in POD. As part of this we have reviewed our question In POD on the collection of information on Ethnic or Cultural Background. We feel that the question used to collect data on ethnic or cultural background should be harmonised across all the education partners and other bodies who collect this type of information. As the CSO is the National Statistical Office, we are taking our lead from them. However, while the question asked in POD is not the exact same as the question asked in the Census of Population, it is based on the question. The main difference between the Census of Population question and the question asked in POD was that we also included the category of Roma as Ireland has International data reporting requirements on this group. The Census does not have a category of Roma.

The Department is currently working on making changes to the text of some of the response categories to Ethnic and Cultural Background question. This includes changes to the suggested consent form for schools to collect the information for POD and to the categories as they appear on the POD database. An updated consent form (in both English and Irish) will be available for downloading from the Department's website in the coming week. These changes will also be reflected on the POD database in the coming weeks.

The changes that will be made to the question asked in POD are outlined as follows. Black African will be replaced with, Black or Black Irish - African,Any other Black Background will be replaced with, Black or Black Irish - Any other Background, Chinese will be replaced with, Asian or Asian Irish-Chinese, Any other Asian will be replaced with, Asian or Asian Irish - Any other background.

While we accept the point that not everyone is happy with the a list of categories as they are laid out, it is very difficult to agree a list of categories that can satisfy everyone when discussing such a subjective matter, particularly the range of possible categories is infinitely wider than what is outlined in our question.In this regard the Statistics Section of the Department met with the CSO's Census of Population Division to discuss concerns such as yours. They too accept that the variant of the ethnicity question on the 2016 census may fall short of what could be expected in today's multi -racial Ireland. Unfortunately, given the no-change' census approach being adopted for Census of Population 2016 it is not possible to change the CSO question at this stage. However the CSO has indicated that it is considering holding a seminar to examine how the data in this area can be improved from the point of view of maximising the number of write-in responses to increase the variety of ethnic descriptions captured, the classification system used, and also looking at the nationality vs. citizenship issue and examining generally how the outputs from the census can be improved in this important area. The Department of Education and Skills will be participating in this seminar. Note that the question on POD is intended to capture ethnic and cultural background only and there is a separate question on POD for nationality.

School Staff

Questions (538)

Jonathan O'Brien

Question:

538. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of schools operating with four teachers or less. [5978/15]

Written answers

Minister for Education and Skills

The information requested is provided in the National School Annual Census Return. Results from the Census for the current school year (2014/2015) are not yet available. The data requested is available on my Department's website for the 2013/14 school year at the link below under the heading class Size Information at Individual Primary School Level.http://www.education.ie/en/Publications/Statistics/Data-on-Individual-Schools/.

Physical Education Facilities

Questions (539)

Jonathan O'Brien

Question:

539. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of schools that currently do not have a physical education hall. [5979/15]

Written answers

Minister for Education and Skills

The specific information sought by the Deputy is not readily available. However, I wish to assure the Deputy that my Department fully recognises the key role of physical exercise within the school environment and continues to respond to the need to improve Physical Education facilities for all pupils attending schools within the constraints of the available funding.

I also wish to advise the Deputy that the Physical Education curriculum has been designed on the basis that facilities in schools may vary. Many post primary schools have a P.E. hall and practically all schools have outdoor play areas which are used for teaching different aspects of the P.E. programme. In addition, many schools use adjacent local facilities, including public parks, playing fields and swimming pools.

The provision of play space, where site conditions and circumstances allow, is one of the issues considered in the architectural design of new schools and major extensions. My Department's design guidelines for schools include guidance in the provision of P.E. Halls, general purpose rooms and outdoor hard play areas such as basketball courts.

Schools Building Projects Status

Questions (540)

Seán Ó Fearghaíl

Question:

540. Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide an update on the building project in respect of a school (details supplied) in Dublin 13; if planning permission for the project has been applied for yet; when the school will go to tender; when construction will commence; and when the new building will be completed. [5991/15]

Written answers

Minister for Education and Skills

The major building project to provide permanent accommodation for the school referred to by the Deputy is in architectural planning. The Design Team are currently finalising the Stage 2A report for presentation to my Department at the Stage 2A stakeholders meeting. A date for this meeting is being agreed between my Department, the Boards of Management and their Design Team.

Following that meeting, and subject to no issues arising, the project should then be authorised to progress to Stage 2B - Detailed Design, which includes the application for statutory approvals (including Planning Permission) and the preparation of tender documents.

Until Planning Permission and the other statutory approvals have been secured it will not be possible to give an indicative date for progression to tender and construction stages.

School Enrolments Data

Questions (541)

Seán Ó Fearghaíl

Question:

541. Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she is satisfied that her Department is planning for sufficient school places in an area (details supplied) in Dublin 13, in view of the number of children in the area and the fact that the existing school is heavily over-subscribed. [5992/15]

Written answers

Minister for Education and Skills

A recent nationwide demographic review carried out in my Department concluded that, with the addition of both planned and recently delivered infrastructural provision in the area referred to by the Deputy, the existing schools between them are expected to be able to cater for the overall level of demand for places in the area.

I wish to advise the Deputy that my Department's main responsibility is ensure that schools, in an area can, between them, cater for all pupils seeking places. This may result, however, in some pupils not obtaining a place in the school of their first choice.

The Forward Planning Section of my Department will continue to monitor demographic data for all areas of the country to ensure emerging needs are met in a timely manner.

School Accommodation

Questions (542)

Seán Ó Fearghaíl

Question:

542. Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Minister for Education and Skills the amount her Department has spent on the current building in respect of a school (details supplied) in Dublin 13, since the school opened; the amount that was spent on the main building; the amount that was spent on pre-fabricated units; and the additional cost of providing more pre-fabricated units for the next school year. [5993/15]

Written answers

Minister for Education and Skills

I wish to advise the Deputy that the school in question was established as an 8 classroom school in 2008. Since then, the building has been expanded and modified to facilitate additional classrooms.

The total cost to date of providing this facility, including its rental, amounts to €4.6 million.The cost of providing prefabs amounted to €354,692. Two additional prefabs are required for the next school year and the school is in the process of sourcing these. The costs are not known at this stage.

The Deputy will be aware that the school is included in the 5 Year construction Plan for the of a new school. The project is currently at Stage 2(a) (Developed Sketch Design) and a draft Stage 2(a) report was recently submitted for review by my Department. A Stage 2(a) stakeholders meeting with the school and its design team is currently being arranged.Subject to no issues arising, the project will then be authorized to progress to Stage 2(b) – Detailed Design, which includes the application for statutory approvals (including Planning Permission) and the preparation of tender documents.