274. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the position regarding applications within the Accreditation and Co-ordination of English Language Services, ACELS, Quality and Qualifications Ireland, QQI, or Marketing English in Ireland, MEI, recognition system at the moment; the reason for excessive delays; when this will be resolved. [39265/14]
239. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 88 of 7 May 2014, if this information was ever received by her Department from the Department of Social Protection; and if she will provide this information. [38926/14]
190. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills her views that applied behaviour analysis is a scientifically based system that has proven its worth and in the long term would save the State money; if she will change her Department to reflect these views; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38634/14]
168. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if a site survey was carried out by an architect or other person contracted by or employed by or connected to her Department, on the Dominican site where a school (details supplied) is located; if a report based on this survey was produced; if she will make the report available to parents of students attending this school. [38376/14]
34. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if her attention has been drawn to anomalies within the Student Universal Support Ireland procedures for assessing independent students; and her plans to reform this. [37920/14]
26. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will ensure schools report to her Department the level of voluntary contributions they receive from parents; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37919/14]
20. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if her attention has been drawn to the high costs incurred by students undertaking Gaeltacht placements as part of third level degrees. [37918/14]
6. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of schools which will remain in prefabricated accommodation outside of her Department's five-year plan; if she will provide an update on her Department's site acquisition processes; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37921/14]
5. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide a commitment to secure the financial feasibility of schools by not proceeding with the proposed 1% cut in the capitation grant, as announced in budget 2012; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38015/14]
2. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she has met the Department of Social Protection on the issue of employing primary schoolteachers through the JobBridge scheme. [38014/14]
498. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the advocacy or representative groups of survivors of residential institutional abuse that have requested to meet her since she took office; the groups she has met to date; if she will meet any others; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38106/14]
497. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of consultants contracted to undertake work for Caranua; the names and details of these consultants; if she appointed any consultants to Caranua and their details; the value of their contracts; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38105/14]
490. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to have farm safety issues incorporated into appropriate parts of the primary school curriculum. [38068/14]
477. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if her attention has been drawn to the fact that many students with disabilities access university and third level colleges via FETAC courses; if her further attention has been drawn to the fact that they must achieve a high standard in their FETAC course in order to do this; if her further attention has been drawn to the fact that they may not access university using DARE having secured FETAC qualifications; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37942/14]
167. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of children accessing resource hours in schools; and the number of extra resource teachers that would be needed to ensure that all children accessing resource hours received the maximum of five hours of resource support. [37322/14]
166. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of reinstating the five hours of special needs assistant support received by children with special needs from the cut rate of three hours and 45 minutes; and the number of extra SNAs that would be needed in order to implement a policy of five hours of support. [37321/14]
165. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of pupils within the education system who are entitled to special needs assistants in schools; and the number of SNAs that are allocated to them. [37320/14]
163. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of not increasing the higher education student contribution by €250 to €3,000. [37318/14]
162. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of not reducing the capitation rates for VTOS, YouthReach, BTEI, PLC and adult literacy by a further 1% as proposed in budget 2012, to be implemented this year. [37317/14]
161. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of not reducing the capitation grant to primary and post-primary schools by a further 1% as proposed in budget 2012, to be implemented this year. [37316/14]
534. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of special needs assistants who have been made redundant in each year since 2008; the number of special needs assistants employed during each of those years; the number of children each of those SNAs was working with; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37087/14]
533. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 463 of 23 September 2014, the date on which she expects the primary school in Craddockstown to be in an actual school rather than prefabs; the stage the process of moving the school out of prefabs is at; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37031/14]
511. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will review the decision to remove one mainstream class teacher from a school (details supplied) in County Galway on the basis that it is short one pupil for the 86 pupil cut-off point this year; if her attention has been drawn to this decision that will mean students being taught in multi-grade classes and a number of classrooms lying idle; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36868/14]
510. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the funding allocated in 2013 and 2014 for Youthreach projects; the number of Youthreach projects in operation in 2013 and 2014; the number of students in Youthreach programmes in 2013 and 2014; the agreed or preferred funding allocation from her Department per capita for each Youthreach project in 2013 and 2014; the agreed or preferred allocation from her Department to be held by the education and training board for administration of the individual Youthreach projects; and if she will provide a comparison for 2013 and 2014 of the total and actual spend per student in a Youthreach course compared to the total and per capita funding for a student in comparable secondary school. [36845/14]
502. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the position for teachers who wish to register with the Teaching Council and the requirement to have completed 300 teaching hours before registration; if any of these hours may be voluntary, undertaken for the purposes of qualifying for registration; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36769/14]
473. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the National Positive Ageing Strategy launched on 25 April 2013 with a guarantee that an implementation plan would follow within six months; the date on which the implementation plan will be completed; the date on which the implementation plan will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37167/14]
154. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection the number of control reviews undertaken last year using social media accounts; the outcome of each review; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36768/14]
153. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection if her Department has purchased services from companies that allow it to view social media profiles of persons or services from app companies that allow it to view the same information; the amount of money spent on these contracts; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36767/14]
152. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection if her staff are allowed set up social media profiles in order to access information when investigating social welfare fraud or if there are specific accounts used for this purpose; and the number of times this has occurred. [36766/14]
151. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection the circulars governing the use of investigating social media accounts of persons for social welfare fraud within her Department; and the number of times social media profiles were investigated in the past four years. [36765/14]
210. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will urge Irish Rail to introduce train tickets for part-time workers that would reduce the cost of their travel and ensure they are not paying for fares for the days they do not commute; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35978/14]
523. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide details in tabular form, by county and year, of the number of applications for the mortgage-to-rent scheme which were unsuccessful because of the occupancy conditions attached to the scheme in respect of the size of dwelling and number of persons residing in the property; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35868/14]
469. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the recourse open to a parent who paid a fee for books to a non-fee-paying primary school at the beginning of September and then subsequently removed the children from that school and put them in another but received no refund for the fees paid and no books; if the school is obliged to refund this money; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35867/14]
468. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills her policy on twins in primary schools remaining in the same class or being separated. [35866/14]
464. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills her views on the excessive delays in the operations of Caranua; if her attention has been drawn to the fact that citizens have lost places on education courses due to the inability of Caranua to process their appeals in a timely manner; if her attention has been further drawn to the fact that a person (details supplied) lost a place on a course due to Caranua's failure to process an appeal and the person has now lodged a complaint with the Ombudsman regarding same; her plans to put guidelines in place to ensure that appeals and cases are processed in a timely manner; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35806/14]
463. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide an update on the provision of a new school in Naas, County Kildare; if her attention has been drawn to the fact a brand new school is lying empty in Craddockstown; if her attention has been further drawn to the fact that the Education and Training Board has a primary school with 220 children in prefabs, of which 30 are located in the adjacent Gaelscoil as there is no room for them at the moment; if her attention has also been drawn to the fact that the prefabs are nine years old and have many leaks and problems with the lighting and electrics, and also have black mould problems and rats; if her attention has been further drawn to the fact that there are only two toilets to serve 100 children; the reason children have not been moved to the new school; the amount of money that was spent on these prefabs in the past nine years and the company from which they were leased; and her plans to rectify this. [35804/14]
450. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the guidelines setting out the standards that the Gaeltacht programme for students undertaking primary education degrees must adhere to; the avenues open to students if they feel that the programmes to which they are sent are not meeting the standards. [35549/14]
449. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills her views on the financial pressure being placed on students due to the increased amount of time they must spend in the Gaeltacht in order to qualify as a teacher; and her plans to address this. [35548/14]
434. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to reinstate the minor works grant scheme; if her attention has been drawn to the negative impacts for many schools as a result of its loss. [35279/14]
1743. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if her attention has been drawn to the fact that over 100 qualified Irish language translators on the Séala State panel of qualified translators received a brief e-mail from National University of Ireland Galway on behalf of Foras na Gaeilge informing them of the cancellation of their séala if received before 2013; if her attention has been further drawn to the fact that translators are being asked to resit an examination next month and that no further information is being made available to them; if she has examined the legal implications of this; if she has sought the views of the translation section of the Houses of the Oireachtas; if she has examined the potential implication for the status of the Irish language within the EU; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33941/14]
1559. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the case of persons (details supplied) in County Cork; if his further attention has been drawn to the failure of the council to provide them with accommodation; if his attention has been drawn to attempts made by Cork City Council to pressure this family and other residents in the halting site either directly or through agents to leave this accommodation; his plans to address the needs of Traveller families in these circumstances; if he has provided guidance to the local authorities that takes into consideration health and safety of the families and the children's educational needs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34148/14]
1522. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the number and names of local authorities that have completed educational impact assessments on residential zoning to identify potential need for schools. [33686/14]
1404. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to include coding and software development in the ICT curriculum for schools. [34190/14]
1403. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she has received any correspondence from a person (details supplied) regarding the closure or amalgamation of a school in Dublin 10; if she has received notification of their intentions for the school in June 2015; if her attention has been drawn to the projected increase in enrolment figures in that area; her plans to improve progression to third level in that area; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34187/14]
1400. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if her attention has been drawn to information publicised by the Irish National Teachers Organisation stating that over 90% of pupils in County Westmeath are in classes greater than the EU average of 20 and that 21.2% are in classes of 30 or more; and her plans to address same. [34130/14]
1391. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to increase the percentage of graduates working in early years education from 12% to 60% in accordance with the European Commission study, Competence Requirements in Early Childhood Education and Care. [34068/14]
1390. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide, in tabular form, information on the number of schools still holding classes in prefabricated buildings; and the dates on which this will no longer be practice for these schools. [34067/14]
1389. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the position regarding a new school building for a school (details supplied) in County Galway. [34066/14]
1388. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of places in third level institutions; and the number of these places reserved for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. [34065/14]