The Department of Education paid €1.5m this year to a construction company with which it remains in legal dispute over alleged safety risks at a series of schools.

Latest: The review of the rising costs of the National Children's Hospital has been told not to find any individuals to blame.

Significant gaps remain between educational outcomes of students in disadvantaged second-level schools and others despite the success of targeted Government investment.

More steps need to be taken to ensure the tax-payer is not left footing the bill for badly built schools, according to Fianna Fáil.

The independent company examining the safety of 42 schools built by Western Building Systems was itself involved in the construction of some elements of the facilities.

A decision about how to permanently memorialise victims of institutional child abuse has still not been made by the Department of Education five years after a planning setback — and nearly a decade since it was recommended in the landmark Ryan Report.

The government has announced an €11.9 billion investment in education as part of Project Ireland 2040.

A planning application has been lodged to provide a permanent home for a second-level school serving Cork’s southern suburbs.

Higher energy bills may be used by the Department of Education to identify schools in need of refurbishment.

More than 200 institutional child abuse victims sought housing, health, or other aid for the first time in the two months coming up to the final deadline for claims from the Caranua fund.

Guidance counsellors are the best people in schools to assist students with mental health issues, their representative organisation has said.

The Department of Education is facing a showdown with schools subcontractors who have been left out of pocket after the collapse of the British construction giant Carrillion and the Irish group Sammon.

The continuation of work on five schools, which was stalled due to the collapse of British construction giant Carillion could be open to legal challenge, a TD has claimed.

Employers and unions have added their voices to calls for an urgent Government response to the higher education funding crisis that sees universities continue their slide on international rankings this week.

The Communion season is in full swing. Happy seven-year-olds, as they always were, are swept up in a process they can hardly understand but embrace enthusiastically.

Parents in dozens of areas where new schools will open in the next four years will have to choose patrons online to run them because of past problems with the selection process.

Members of one of the country’s teaching unions are set to ignore a recent “ham-fisted” Department of Education demand to provide alternative arrangements for students who opt out of religious instruction.

Teachers have warned that any attempt to introduce assessment of students by their teachers as part of reform of the Leaving Certificate will be strenuously resisted.

The controversial €23m sale of Harold’s Cross greyhound stadium that would wipe out the Irish Greyhound Board’s debts may take another six months to be finalised.

A €200m building spend at 11 institutes of technology will create extra spaces for around 8,000 students in state-of-the-art facilities for everything from catering to computer science.

The Department of Education has launched an immediate review of Celtic Tiger-era schools’ fire safety standards amid fears over the protections they would offer during a blaze.

Lecturers at institutes of technology have voted for a deal with colleges and the Department of Education that should clear the way for new laws allowing the creation of technological universities.

A range of pay increases and access to permanent jobs for some teachers would kick in immediately if the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland decides to suspend a number of industrial actions, the Department of Education has said.

Update 12.15pm: The University of Limerick has confirm that it has invited the Department of Education and Science to undertake an independent review of a number of areas of governance at the university.

The Department of Education has insisted that second-level schools are obliged to ensure extra teaching hours allocated for guidance are used for that purpose.

Hundreds of secondary schools across the country are to remain shut indefinitely after crunch talks over a pay row collapsed without a deal.

Latest: Secondary teachers who are threatening to strike have wrapped up their talks with the Department of Education, saying they will meet again on Monday.

Junior Cert students taught by ASTI members could lose 10% of their English grade because of a dispute with the Department of Education.

The secretary general of the Department of Education has been accused by a teachers' union of intervening in its ongoing ballot on proposals for additional working hours.

Primary school teachers have voted by 97% in favour of industrial action over the ban on promotions and increasing workloads.

A transgender student has said he felt like his identity was invisible during his time at an all-girls school.

Department of Education rules could lead to "double discrimination" for some schoolchildren, it was claimed today.

More than 200 child sex abuse victims who dropped cases against the State relating to abuse when they were at school could be eligible for offers up to €84,000 each under a new scheme approved by the Government.

Education Minister Jan O'Sullivan has announced a crackdown on "rogue" international language colleges.

Over €1m in backpay will be paid by the Department of Education to up to 2,000 teachers over the next week — almost two years after revised salaries were agreed.

Vending machines will not be banned from secondary schools here despite fresh opposition from the HSE and campaigners.

A small number of Catholic schools may transfer to new patrons later this year but the Department of Education expects others to follow suit in greater numbers over the next few years.

Primary schools are being overloaded with changes to curricular emphasis without proper guidance, training or other supports from the Department of Education, the head of their principals’ body claimed.