The Deputy is having a busy day with the school tours. I join with him in welcoming the second group of sixth years from Newtown Forbes national school. They are very welcome to the Dáil. The Deputy is right. What he read out with regard to its last meeting is an indication of the valuable work done by the National Skills Council. Away from the day-to-day stuff, it provides the council with an opportunity to scan the horizon and look at the changes that need to be brought in in the months and years ahead. My initia…

If there is one part of the country that has seen the benefit of the new Department, I hope it is the Deputy's county, constituency and city of Waterford. We had a good week this week and I thank the Deputy for his work on that. We did not have a university for the south east when he entered the Dáil or when I entered this role. We have worked together on a cross-party basis and in government to get there. There has also been the expansion of the Waterford Crystal site. That shows what we can do when we put a focus…

I look forward to Deputy Ó Murchú and I having this meeting on personal assistants and how we can make progress on that. Skillnet Ireland is the agency that can reach in to businesses to try to provide those transversal skills and to provide short courses. On the point Deputy Ó Cathasaigh made, Skillnet Ireland becoming Ireland's leading agency for upskilling and reskilling within the workplace will be one of the key policy directions of travel that will be seen from me and my Department in the months ahead. Going …

I fully agree with the Deputy. With World Autism Month coming up, and Deputy Stanton has posed a question that will enable me to get into this more, we have so much more we need to do here. As a country, we have made quite a lot of progress in primary and secondary schools. There is still far too much of a cliff edge from my perspective for too many students who are neurodiverse, autistic students and others when they move from second level to third level. We have work under way but I want to challenge myself and o…

Yes, it has been brought to my attention. The Deputy is on to something and I thank him for highlighting it because it has enabled me to probe the system to try to resolve the matter. As the Deputy rightly says, this is a really important step and is something people have been looking for for ages, namely, moving this thing online and saving people time and hassle in terms of having to travel and take time off work. However, there was an issue that has had to be teased through and I will get to that in a moment. Th…

I am largely satisfied. I am satisfied but I always put a caveat in because this is a new system. There is an implementation process, no one should be complacent, and it needs to continue to be monitored. There are a couple of things. First, this issue was identified as a result of the SOLAS helpline. The system worked, if you like. People were ringing in about it and SOLAS identified the issue. SOLAS went back and asked what was behind the issue. It seemed this was different from attending in person. It is a diffe…

I fully agree with that. It is not mandatory to go through the book, but it is very much made clear that people should do so. Looking at the website, it is quite obvious that people should do this. Equally, when people begin the test, there is an option to take a tutorial before it commences. That tutorial shows people how to navigate and scroll through the test and the questions relating to it. This is a good decision. I should say that this is an alternative as opposed to being the only show in town. Currently, 3…

Not that I am aware of.

I thank Deputy Dillon for the question. He has raised an important issue. We need to train more people to work in therapies. In the area of speech and language therapy, the need is acute. Equally, as the Deputy suggested, it is also important to do this in general in respect of broader therapies concerned with working with people with a disability, older people and our mental health services. I am pleased to tell the Deputy that significant engagement is ongoing between my Department and the Departments of Health, …

I can. I am very committed to ensuring this happens concerning therapy areas, which includes speech and language therapy. I am working closely with the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, and the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, on this issue. I think we have an opportunity to take a step-change approach to the size of the education sector in respect of the health service and our therapy provision. Without going back into former Minister for Health mode, this is j…

This issue can very much be addressed. One other area I will throw into the mix is that I think we need to challenge the education sector in respect of how it can address this issue in different and flexible ways. We have, for example, medicine and graduate entry medicine courses. We also have an ability for people to do nursing through further education and progress from there in nursing. We also have different grades, for example, in psychology. We now have an assistant psychology grade as well. I think we have a…

The quality of our researchers is fundamental to the quality of our research system and its collaboration with partners in industry and policymakers, both in Ireland and abroad. Under pillar 4 of our national research and innovation strategy, Impact 2030, we have committed to ensuring that our researchers have the right skills and development and career opportunities to ensure they can make their maximum contribution, whether in academia, industry, the public sector or elsewhere. As part of advancing this commitmen…

I expect to receive the report in and around April. When it will be published will depend on how long it takes me to consider it and bring it to the Government and I want to publish it. My intention is to receive the report in due time to be able to consider it, bring it to Government, and then to try to start making progress on its recommendations in the Estimates process. We did make some progress in the last Estimates, but not nearly enough, in terms of increasing the stipends for Science Foundation Ireland, SFI…

Apprenticeship training in the construction sector provides the skills required for a modern workforce, but crucially helps to support the Government in the delivery of our retrofitting targets set out in the national retrofit plan. As we learned yesterday in this House retrofitting a house is not a new house, but it is a very important thing to do in terms of the climate. Retrofitting-related education and training is delivered across the tertiary system. Nearly zero energy building, NZEB, standards are being embe…

I thank the Deputy and I absolutely will because it is key for the mental health and well-being of young people that we do not have such a narrow definition of success. I think the Central Applications Office, CAO, process and league tables and that sort of stuff have brought us to that in recent years. It is also key for societal good because so much of what we need to progress around housing, climate and other areas will require more people becoming apprentices, doing traineeships, and going into further educatio…

"Yes" is the short answer and I recently met the public sector trade unions, and indeed other trade unions representing apprentices to consider how best to take this forward. These rates were traditionally set by industry so, not to pass the buck but there is not a direct role from my Department in terms of setting the rates. However, there are significant considerations around, for example, the minimum wage and how it relates to our apprentices. That is an issue I am looking at. We will work with our colleagues in…

I thank the Deputy for the question. As she will be aware, the HEA is close to concluding a process to identify where additional capacity could be built in the higher education sector in a number of key areas, including veterinary medicine. As part of the process, the HEA is examining opportunities for new programme provision as well as the expansion of current programmes, and will determine a final list of options, which I expect to receive shortly. The HEA appointed an expert advisory panel to review new programm…

I agree with Deputy Conway-Walsh that we need more capacity. If I did not believe that, we would not have included veterinary medicine in the review. We need more capacity. She is also right that whichever institution is selected, or wherever additional places might be made available, we need institutions that can deliver. The key to that is the role of the Veterinary Council of Ireland, which is the regulator. My Department can provide places but the educational offering must satisfy the needs of the industry and …

I share the Deputy's view.

After County Wicklow, west Clare is one of the most beautiful parts of our country. I take the Deputy's point. I also take the point about the importance of our regional and technological universities. One of the reasons we have put such a focus on making sure we have university capacity outside of the big cities is for balanced regional development and to provide the opportunity for local communities to try to harness the potential of relatively new industries, new jobs and where that will bring us in the future. …