James Lawless

I assure the Deputy and the House that I will make the case in the budget negotiations to secure the maximum possible package for my Department for the benefit of students, apprentices, researchers and all the people within and for all the good reasons the Deputy articulates. I expect the cost of college paper to be available in June or early summer, and certainly it will be with us before the su…

It is a priority of mine to make higher education more accessible, as I have been saying in reply to earlier questions. Part of this is the cost of accommodation, the cost of putting a roof over everyone's head, and making sure that the students are ideally as close to their college as possible. I firmly believe that the student experience and the college experience necessitates, and is enhanced b…

I have indeed sat down with the Minister for housing. We had a number of good interactions over the past year, and particularly when he announced his intention to bring forward the reform of the rent pressure zones and to legislate for that. We immediately engaged on that and we spent a long time working out the details of how that would affect students. One of the outputs of that is the special p…

I have ongoing engagement with the Minister for housing and we have had a very structured and productive engagement, which led to the student exemption and the protection window of three years being imposed in the new rental protection Acts. I hear the issue that the Deputy raises. I have written directly to one or two institutions where I was made aware of this practice. I advised them that I did…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta McGettigan. Aithníonn mo Roinn an ról tábhachtach atá ag earnáil an oideachais threasaigh maidir le cur chun cinn agus cothabháil na Gaeilge. Tá réimse cúrsaí ar fáil do mhic léinn trí mheán na Gaeilge ar fud na hearnála treasaí. Is iad na hinstitiúidí féin a dhéanann na cinntí sin i gcomhréir lena neamhspleáchas acadúil. Léiríonn anailís a rinne an tÚdarás um Ard-…

Níor cheart go mbeadh imní ar an Teachta faoina cuid Gaeilge, táimse ag foghlaim chomh maith. Maith thú as an bhfoghlaim. We will learn together. It is commendable when anyone attempts it. To meet the target, the goal is to have a workforce capable of speaking at least partly as Gaelige, but ideally 20% would have a strong ability and competency. A wide range of courses is available already. Some …

I know Conradh na Gaeilge well. I will be meeting its representatives in the near future to discuss their submissions and requests. I am very supportive and I hope we can do as much as we can for them. I mentioned some of the actions we are taking. There are a couple of specific actions we are taking to meet the target. We are working with the Department of Education and Youth to examine the trans…

I worked all the way through second level and third level and afterwards. Then I ended up studying while I was working, so I did it both ways round. I totally appreciate the industriousness and the necessity in many cases for students to work through their education. How we have it structured is that under the SUSI grant scheme, income from employment that represents holiday earnings outside of te…

They do not need to leave Kerry any more at all, because we have a fine university in Tralee with MTU. I visited it recently with the Minister, Deputy Foley, and Deputy Cahill and we saw it in action. Professor Maggie Cusack and the then chairperson, Jimmy Deenihan, welcomed us to the facility. The university is providing world-class services. If students do want to leave Kerry, however, there are…

As I said at the outset, I worked all through college at a variety of things through weekends, evenings in some cases, and all through my summers and, indeed, often Christmas and Easter holidays as well. I would make the point to the Deputy that there is nothing stopping students from doing that. Students can work, and they can choose. It equates roughly to Christmas holidays, Easter holidays and …

I thank the Deputy very much. He mentioned AI and skills shortages and understanding the new trends that are emerging in higher education and across training our graduates and, indeed, our apprentices. That is an absolute priority for me and the Department. We are doing a lot of work on skills and identifying skills needs and skills gaps, working through SOLAS, the National Skills Council, the exp…

The Deputy is exactly right. One of the interesting outputs of the inaugural skills round-table I held about six weeks, which had the accommodation sectors at it, was that there was a common theme. Regardless of semiconductors, biosciences, pharmaceuticals or construction, there was a common theme. They said they want to be able to hire graduates, trainees and skilled workers who have broader skil…

There are a couple of things. I recently launched a website called aiready.ie. The Deputy might have tried it out. I urge anyone who has not already to do so. That website is specifically targeted at short AI familiarity skills. It is not necessarily building up to expert user level but building up an awareness of AI and how it works - how it can be used, for example, in a small business, for pers…

I am aware of the Deputy's interest in this. I am pleased to be able to advise the Deputy that I have met the presidents of both UCC and MTU on a number of occasions. I have also visited both institutions on a number of occasions and, indeed, I will do so again this week. I am very aware of how the supply and affordability of accommodation is impacting students in Cork and more generally across t…

I totally agree with the Deputy. We need to see significant progress and we need to see it soon. On the theme of progress, we saw 206 beds with a commencement notice issued only last month in Cork. There are 3,000 around the country since I launched the strategy approximately six weeks ago. Approximately 206 of those are in Cork, and they are badly needed. There are another 1,700 beds in Cork wit…

I am conscious of this and I have met all the technological universities, TUs, on it. It is a programme for Government commitment and it is one I have given effect to through the student accommodation strategy because the strategy includes provision for nomination agreements. Nomination agreements are technical arrangements, but they allow the technological university to take on a contingent liabi…

As the Deputy will be aware, under legislation, the Irish higher education institutions are autonomous in their decisions and the processes they follow in relation to admissions, and rightly so. They operate without political influence in terms of their admission criteria and enrolment. Both public and private institutions, all use the CAO, which is well understood, to centrally process the appli…

I am just clarifying. The Deputy's question asked about the courses in which maximum leaving certificate points did not guarantee admission due to demand and he has moved on now to high-points courses. The difference between maximum and high-points is that it is a meritocracy. Rightly or wrongly, the CAO system awards courses on the basis of points. A student had maximum points and missed out on a…

Not to my knowledge. My Department does not collect data on the number of international students or the share of places offered through the CAO on a course-by-course basis. That falls under the remit of the individual autonomous higher education institutions and they determine that annually. The Deputy may wish to correspond with them to make his own inquiries. I reiterate my point because the sce…

In actual fact I do not have the information.

It is because these are autonomous institutions that manage their own course and manage their own systems within it. The Deputy is welcome to correspond with them, if he has not done so already, to see what information he can derive. Every student who wanted a course, bar one, got into a course. In the latest CAO round, there was one student in one course in entire country. It is regrettable and I…

We have been engaging intensively with European partners on the future of Erasmus+. My officials are working closely at the technical level and I am working at the ministerial and political level to advance negotiations on this important programme. Good progress has been made under both the Danish and Cypriot Presidencies. As the Deputy knows, the Cypriot Presidency comes to a close at the end of …

It would be regrettable if that scenario were to come to pass. I understand the concern and it is well voiced. We are at the partial general agreement, meaning that specific parts of the proposal have been agreed. Ultimately the budget has yet to be agreed and that is what we have to negotiate with our colleagues in the European Parliament as we move on to the tripartite stage. I will be meeting s…

I very much take the Deputy's points on board. He is right about the contribution to the economy that arises from having the student inflow here as well as the visiting families and so forth. When I was growing up, my own house was home to many visiting students of many nationalities on different courses. It also provides for a richer rounder experience for the host families and the students. Earl…

Well done to all the winners and commiserations to all who did not make it over the line. The ongoing success of Offaly hurling is to be celebrated in Offaly but perhaps to be feared in other counties in Leinster. We will wish the Deputy well for now, but we will see where it goes. Before I speak about Kildalton College, I compliment the team in Mount Bellew Agricultural College in County Galway,…