Simon Harris

Cabinet to approve 1,056 extra college places to ease pressure on CAO

The Cabinet will approve an extra 1,056 college places today to ease the pressure for entry to a number of CAO courses brought on by the third year of Covid-related Leaving Cert grade inflation.

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Ministerial ratings: Two years after Cabinet was formed, who has outstayed their welcome and who deserves to be asked back?

THIS weekend marks two years since the ‘grand coalition’ of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party came to power. Micheál Martin’s Cabinet picks brought together a mix of very experienced ministers and rookie TDs. With a reshuffle scheduled for later this year, Political Correspondent Senan Molony assesses who is swimming and sinking.

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Leo Varadkar slaps down Simon Harris over ‘navel gazing’ comments

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has slapped down Simon Harris in a clear sign of simmering tension between two of the most high-profile ministers in Fine Gael.

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Letters to the Editor Opinion When it comes to pop and pomp, our neighbours excel

What a performance by the Queen and Queen at the Platinum Jubilee concert. Between them they stole the show.

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Leo Varadkar says Government wants to eliminate hospital charges for all patients

The Government wants to eliminate hospital charges for all patients, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has told the Dáil.

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Objections to housing developments over lack of school places is ‘less than ideal’, concedes Harris

Higher Education Minister Simon Harris has admitted it is “less than ideal” for state officials to object to new housing schemes over concerns about school places.

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Dundalk IT looks west to Atlantic TU link-up

Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) is looking west with a view to joining the Atlantic Technological University (ATU).

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Leaving Cert results: Simon Harris talks with Norma Foley about urgent need for date

Higher Education Minister Simon Harris has expressed concern at the delay in announcing a date for the Leaving Cert results.

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Huge ‘black hole’ in workforce as 50,000 building workers are needed to tackle housing

More than 50,000 construction workers are urgently needed to fill a ‘black hole’ in the workforce if the Government is to meet targets aimed at tackling the housing crisis.

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Five-year row over maternity hospital now looks like time wasted on someone’s culture war

In January 2019, in the early days of Ireland’s new abortion law, the National Maternity Hospital on Holles Street was already providing terminations to women who only a month earlier would have had to travel abroad.

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Plan to spend €2,000 more per college student in reform of third-level sector

An additional €307m – or more than €2,000 per student – is to be invested in third-level education as part of a government plan to radically reform the sector.

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Cuts to student fees on table as part of plan to slash cost of college education

Cuts to student fees will be considered by Cabinet under a major plan to reduce the cost of third-level education.

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CAO points race: 200 more places in medicine to added, plus new route to train as doctor in North

A huge increase in places for medicine will include groundbreaking opportunities for CAO applicants to study to be doctors in Northern Ireland.

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Wall of silence: So who did sign off on Tony Holohan’s €187k Trinity College move?

The Department of Health has refused to answer questions about who signed off on Dr Tony Holohan’s secondment to a newly created role in Trinity College while continuing to fund his €187,000 public service salary.

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Letters to the Editor Opinion Echoes of Dresden, another devastating act of horror

I refer to Máirín Quill’s letter (Irish Independent, March 23), in which she wonders how such a great nation could inflict such evil. The nation she refers to is Russia.

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Report imminent on alleged shortcomings at nursing home

Investigators examining whistleblower allegations of shortcomings at a Dublin nursing home during the first wave of Covid-19 are due to submit their draft report next week.

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Ukrainian refugees may not be garda vetted before moving into homes of senior Cabinet ministers

Ukraine refugees may be housed in the homes of senior Government ministers without being first vetted by security services, it has emerged.

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DCU to make it easier to do a degree without the heat of CAO points race

DUBLIN City University (DCU) is shaking up its entry process to make it easier for students to get into college without worrying about CAO points.

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Taoiseach and Cabinet ministers stay silent on whether they would open their homes to Ukrainian war refugees

MICHEÁL Martin and most of his Cabinet ministers have declined to say whether they would be prepared, if they can, to take in Ukrainian refugees.

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A nation embraces refugees of war as up to 80,000 Ukrainians may come to Ireland

There is overwhelming support to welcome refugees from war-torn Ukraine, according to a Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks opinion poll, with suggestions at the highest level in Government this weekend that up to 80,000 may ultimately be accommodated here.

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Straight-talking Taoiseach wins hearts and minds by speaking loudly and proudly for Ireland

In times of crisis people tend to become more favourable towards their political leaders. It is sometimes called the rally-around-the-flag effect.

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Irish babies born in Kyiv to surrogate mothers are evacuated amid fighting

Arrangements have been made to ensure the safe passage of Irish babies born to surrogate mothers in Ukraine and their parents.

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Sinn Féin’s Carthy objected to EU ban on serious criminals becoming MEPs

Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy objected to European Parliament legislation banning anyone convicted of a serious crime from becoming an MEP.

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Ireland’s newest technological university expands its presence by taking up residence at the home of Galwegians Rugby Club

THE new Atlantic Technological University (ATU) is expanding into the home of Galwegians Rugby Club, beside the existing GMIT campus in Galway city.

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Fine Gael TDs and senators are upset at Leo Varadkar’s election dossier plan

Leo Varadkar has asked his TDs and senators to share their constituency election strategies with Fine Gael headquarters in a move that has infuriated some in the party.

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Unemployment among graduates doubled as pandemic impact laid bare

Graduate unemployment doubled in the year after Covid struck.

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Fionnán Sheahan Opinion Performance review: Pandemic praise for Paschal, Michéal, Norma – but not Simon and Catherine

Astound them with your ingratitude. The lifting of nearly all the Covid-19 restrictions failed to deliver a lift in support for the Coalition parties, as the Business Post Red C poll showed yesterday. Looking solely at their performance in the Covid-19 crisis, not their wider roles, some members of Government can legitimately feel hard done by.

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Minister signals cut in €3,000 college fees as cost of living spirals

Higher Education Minister Simon Harris has signalled plans to begin reducing the cost of student college fees.

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Call for colleges to fund Rape Crisis Centres to support student victims

Third-level colleges have been urged to provide funding for local Rape Crisis Centres to support more specialist counselling to student victims of sex assaults.

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And just like that, we’ve got our lives back as Covid curbs ease

On the night of November 25 last year Health Minister Stephen Donnelly left his office in the Department of Health after spending the evening poring over the latest available data on the Delta wave of Covid-19.