209. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Health if he will provide, in tabular form, the numbers of new applications for home help that were approved but not allocated due to financial constraints in each of the past six months in the south Lee area and the north Lee area in County Cork. [26539/15]
208. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Health if he will provide, in tabular form, the numbers of new applications for home help that were approved in each of the past six months in the south Lee area and the north Lee area in County Cork. [26538/15]
565. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to introduce a cardiopulmonary resuscitation, CPR, and defibrillator training module to the transition year module; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26293/15]
564. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of English teachers employed within the secondary school system. [26291/15]
563. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of guidance counsellors employed within the secondary school system. [26290/15]
562. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 519 of 23 June 2015 requesting information on the number of schools currently without guidance provision, her views on whether it is considered best practice under the current delivering equality of opportunity in schools policy to allow schools to provide no guidance counselling hours for their students; the current guidelines operating under this policy; and if she will direct her Department to collate this information centrally. [26289/15]
561. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 557 of 23 June 2015, requesting information on the number of teachers in the primary school sector teaching in multigrade settings with classes containing three, four, five or more grades, the reason this information is not available; the information held by her Department on the number of multigrade classes; the reason this information is not collated centrally for educational planning purposes; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26288/15]
143. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she is aware two students with disabilities at Saint Angela’s College in County Sligo are unable to visit the canteen because of accessibility issues. [25736/15]
141. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she is aware of an incident in a County Limerick school where it has emerged that hidden cameras were placed inside the school without the knowledge of staff, parents or pupils; and if the Data Protection Commissioner is investigating this matter. [25735/15]
131. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she is aware of the results of a survey of academics in institutes of technology commissioned by the Irish Federation of University Teachers and the Teachers Union of Ireland that shows that lecturers are spending time on language and writing skills with students to the detriment of actual teaching time and that many international students are being recruited to courses despite not meeting course requirements; her plans to address this matter; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25733/15]
129. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she is aware of a policy paper recently launched by Barnardos calling for an additional €103 million in education funding to provide a truly free primary education system; and her plans to move towards a primary schools system where parents do not pay towards the cost of books or transport. [25737/15]
115. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she is aware of the practice within some institutes of technology of appointing chaplains and using public funds to do so without advertising, tendering or following public procurement or public appointment guidelines; the public funding that was used to pay for chaplain roles in 2012-13 and 2013-14; and her plans to rectify this. [25734/15]
104. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will consider ring-fencing the current capitation grant rates for primary schools and introducing a supplementary system whereby schools may apply for additional capitation funding based on the condition of the school and other needs in order to introduce a fairer scheme and to address the higher expenditure older schools incur. [25913/15]
101. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide an update on the administration of her Department’s primary online database project, involving the collection and storage of information on children in the primary school system, including her plans to defund schools if they do not co-operate with the project, and her consultation with parents on information that is to be collected. [25912/15]
557. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide, in tabular form, the number of teachers in the primary school sector who are teaching in a multi-grade setting and who are teaching classes containing three grades; four grades; and more than five grades. [24961/15]
535. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide a complete update, including funding allocation, identification of a location, and timeframes, in relation to the provision of permanent school buildings for primary and post-primary Educate Together schools in Stepaside in Dublin 18. [24624/15]
519. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Questions Nos. 190, 239, and 243 of 14 February 2012, the resource that was used to state 42% of schools did not have a full-time guidance counsellor at that time; and the percentage of schools that do not have a full-time guidance counsellor at present broken down by fee-paying and non-fee-paying schools. [24519/15]
194. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the timeframe it would take and cost to reduce pupil-teacher ratios to 20:1, at the rate of reducing class sizes by one pupil per year, taking into account growing number of students in the next few years. [23983/15]
192. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of primary school children who were in classes of 30 or more during the 2014-15 school year, by county. [23968/15]
191. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the current pupil teacher ratio; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23967/15]
750. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if he is aware that 40% of schools have no access to free drinking water for students; and his plans to address this matter. [23726/15]
734. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if there is any monitoring process in place to ensure that schools engage in providing health foods; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23725/15]
733. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to introduce a national standard for food provision in schools, or if she has discussed the potential for this with the Department of Social Protection. [23724/15]
732. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the reason she has not met with the Irish Heart Foundation to discuss the matter of food provision in schools. [23723/15]
731. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the plans for her Department to take over the responsibility for food provision in schools from the Department of Social Protection. [23722/15]
711. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of providing training for all teachers at post-primary level in the mental health and emotional wellbeing aspect of the Social, Personal and Health Education Curriculum, in order to ensure that teachers are skilled to deal with the problems faced by students; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23353/15]
415. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Justice and Equality her plans to introduce legal recognition of pre-nuptial agreements in view of the legal recognition of cohabitation agreements for non-married partners. [22992/15]
199. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she is aware of concerns raised by students following the ordinary level leaving certificate mathematics paper 1 examination this year in relation to elements of the higher level paper being incorporated into this; if there is a strategy of making ordinary level mathematics papers more difficult in order to push students into doing the higher level papers; and her plans to address this with the State Examinations Commission. [22837/15]
42. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she is aware of recent announcements by third level institutions that they will increase the cost of on-campus accommodation; the date on which she will receive the report from the Higher Education Authority on student accommodation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21930/15]
33. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to expand and diversify the sectors in which persons may undertake apprenticeships; the funding that will be allocated to this; the extra apprenticeship places that will be funded; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21932/15]
27. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to amend legislation so that children may not be discriminated against in accessing school places on the basis of religion. [21934/15]
20. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she is aware that at least 1,000 students with special needs were refused examination supports by the State Examinations Commission this year for the leaving certificate; her plans to change the access process to make it the same as for the junior certificate; if she will rectify this so that students know they will receive supports earlier in the school year; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21933/15]
12. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the date on which she expects to receive the Higher Education Authority report on gender equality in third level colleges, following the recent audit which the authority initiated. [21931/15]
5. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to improve the DEIS scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22313/15]
2. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she is aware of the 2014 ESRI school leavers study that provided conclusive evidence of the importance of guidance counselling to students from lower socio-economic groups; if she is further aware that schools in that bracket cannot provide sufficient guidance counselling services within their current teaching allocation; and her plans to rectify this matter. [22312/15]
1012. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she is aware of the important work done in the behaviour support classroom in a school (details supplied) in County Cork; that this was a vital support and necessity given that it was in a Revitalising Areas by Planning, Investment and Development (RAPID) area and all of the feeder schools were Delivering Equality of Opportunity in School Band 1; that the school depends on the behaviour support classroom to provide a positive learning environment; and her plans to have this classroom reinstated at the school for the next academic year. [22475/15]
976. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills in relation to the pilot of new model for allocating resource teachers to schools, the cost of adding the additional resource teacher posts; the breakdown of the 6,454 posts between primary and secondary schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21929/15]
744. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Health if he is aware of the recent research from the University of Limerick stating that the standards of wheelchairs provided to wheelchair users is not meeting their needs; that the wheelchairs provided by the Health Service Executive fall below the standards set by the World Health Organisation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21730/15]
899. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the funding streams available to primary and post-primary schools to support the teaching of music within schools, including the purchase of instruments; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20602/15]
895. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if her Department has examined a step-down facility for persons who take on principal roles without a loss of seniority and pension; and if she will provide the details of these reviews. [20580/15]
894. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of reducing the threshold for administrative principals to 145 pupils. [20579/15]
893. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of providing teaching principals' extra administration days and increasing the current allocation to one day per week. [20578/15]
892. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she is aware of the insufficient library facilities in Mary Immaculate College in County Limerick, where there are currently over 3,400 students using a library built to cater for 750 students; that the student to seat ratio of 16:1 is the highest in the State; her views that a library is a critical resource for the college; and her plans to ensure capital funding is available to develop improved library facilities in the college. [20563/15]
877. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the amount of funding allocated to Towards Healing for the provision of counselling services for survivors of institutional abuse. [20319/15]
876. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of survivors of institutional abuse she has met during the past three months; her plans to reply to the questions posed by these survivors; and the reason survivors are not permitted to write to the board to query their applications. [20317/15]
863. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to ensure that Student Universal Support Ireland applications can be made at the same time as Central Applications Office applications. [20247/15]
862. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to ensure that Gaeltacht island schools' specific needs are recognised by her Department’s policy, including with regard to teacher allocation; if she is aware of the negative impact that her Department's redeployment policy is having on island schools; and her plans to address this matter. [20246/15]
861. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide the details of unsanctioned top-up payments to staff of University College Cork; the rate of unsanctioned payment per person during each of the past ten years, set out in tabular form; the date on which her Department became aware of this practice; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20245/15]