Results 221-240 of 468 for speaker:Liam Fitzgerald

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (7 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: I could not agree more with Senator O'Toole. The idea behind our evolving educational policy is to make the education system more child-centred, not parent-centred. I agree with the Senator on his reference to the Constitution. I mean no disrespect to its author, but it is unfortunate that its wording regarding parents is sometimes misinterpreted — unwittingly, I am sure. To give parents...

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (7 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: I expressed some views on the question of the consent of the Minister for Finance in my contribution on Second Stage. Article 17 of the Constitution requires that the Government be accountable to the Oireachtas for all moneys spent. It has always been the function of the Minister for Finance to organise Government expenditure. The logic of one of Senator O'Toole's proposals would be for the...

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (7 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: The Senator may inform the House of his logic when I am finished.

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (7 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: The Government has always conducted its business in this way. On the one hand, Senator O'Toole is saying he acknowledges and accepts that this approach has worked and that he does not want to disturb it, while, on the other, he is arguing for the removal from the Bill of an element which acknowledges the way in which the Government works. The wording in the Bill does nothing other than...

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (7 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: It is also extremely progressive and significantly enhances the powers of the Minister for Education and Science to make "adequate provision". With the deepest respect to my colleague, Senator O'Toole, the term "adequate provision" is subjective and arbitrary.

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (7 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: Its use would not, therefore, guarantee that adequate resources would be made available. Nevertheless, I respect the Senator's view and support the general principle involved. His proposal would not, however, definitively result in the objective he seeks being achieved. I am happy with and encouraged by the substantial improvements made to section 13. As has been stated, its reference to the...

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (7 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: Section 13 is unique and unprecedented and will shape the exercise of the Minister for Finance's discretion in a way that has never happened before.

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (7 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: It has happened in the Bill, which provides that if the Minister for Finance fails to make adequate provision and resources available to the Minister for Health and Children or the Minister for Education and Science, or both, to discharge their duties under the legislation, those who suffer may have grounds for review of the Minister's failure by the High Court. That is a key advance at the...

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (7 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: The Minister of State will agree that there is unwarranted concern — I will not call it hysteria — and over-sensitivity regarding the inclusion of a requirement to obtain the consent of the Minister for Finance. This provision merely acknowledges what has always been and will continue to be the case.

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (7 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: Its inclusion does not take from the fact that substantial progress has been made with regard to the rights of the child being vindicated in law within the framework of the National Council for Special Education.

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (7 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: That word invites a subjective interpretation and the matter could still end up in the courts.

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (7 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: The Senator's comments are extraneous.

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Report and Final Stages. (8 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: I am also sympathetic to the views expressed by Senator Ulick Burke. Any Member who has dealt with children with special needs in public life or professionally in education will know that 99% of what the Senator outlined is very true. We have all come face to face with such situations. If the Bill is to mean anything, its text must address the significant lacuna the existence of which has...

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Report and Final Stages. (8 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: I listened to Senator Ulick Burke very carefully on Committee Stage and understood that every reference made to individual education plans in the Bill concerns the preparation of a plan for an individual child, as I tried to articulate on Committee Stage. There is no ambiguity in this matter at any point in the Bill. The Bill brings all the relevant agencies and partners involved towards the...

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Report and Final Stages. (8 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: I remind Senator Ryan that the word used in section 13 is "may" and not "shall". It makes no significant difference whether we include or delete the phrase "with the consent of the Minister for Finance". The inclusion of the phrase is consistent with the role of Government and the way it operates. We discussed this matter yesterday and I do not propose discussing it in detail. The Bill is...

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Report and Final Stages. (8 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: Senator Ryan referred to riachtanaisí speisialta. That requirement applies not alone to the Irish language but in an era of multiculturalism, across the board. There is a genuine case for the amendment and it is true that in many cases additional resources are needed to deal with the linguistic and cultural requirements in Gaeltachtaí and Gaelscoileanna but surely this Bill, the Education...

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Report and Final Stages. (8 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: Whether the formula of words proposed by Senator Burke in his amendment is necessary is a matter for the Minister of State's judgment but the aspiration which it represents is essential. If that aspiration is not translated and given effect in the Bill, the state-of-the-art framework set out in the Bill will not be realised. That there is a timescale for the implementation of the Bill of five...

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Report and Final Stages. (8 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: Not at all.

Seanad: Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Report and Final Stages. (8 Jul 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: I thank the Ministers of State, Deputies de Valera and Brian Lenihan, who have piloted the Bill through the House. I join with my colleagues in complimenting them for their attention to the detail of the debate. More important, they have responded meaningfully and holistically to the many views expressed. I also thank the officials in the Department of Education and Science for their...

Seanad: Disability Services: Motion. (29 Sep 2004)

Liam Fitzgerald: I second the motion. Like Senator Kett, I pay tribute to the former Minister of State, Deputy Mary Wallace. She produced a Bill before the last general election but, due to various negative and mischievous comments, it was compromised before it reached the Houses of the Oireachtas and had to be withdrawn. If that Bill had been brought before the Houses, the collective wisdom of Members would...