Results 3,761-3,780 of 4,073 for speaker:Mary Mitchell O'Connor

Seanad: Technological Universities Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Feb 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: There is an outreach facility in Wexford in addition to the facilities in Carlow and Waterford.

Seanad: Technological Universities Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Feb 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: Well, there you go.

Seanad: Technological Universities Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Feb 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: The reference in this amendment to "NQF level 5" relates to honours leaving certificate qualifications as well as other types of further education qualifications. One would expect many of the students who are coming into an institute of technology to have leaving certificate qualifications. Therefore, they would be at the NQF stage referred to in the amendment. This amendment may have been...

Seanad: Technological Universities Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Feb 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: Athena SWAN is an award for which institutions apply. Only five universities have received bronze awards, namely, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin City University, the University of Limerick, University College Dublin and University College Cork.

Seanad: Technological Universities Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Feb 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: Athena SWAN is an awards system. The awards available are bronze, silver and gold. It recognises the ways in which women are promoted in our different higher education institutions.

Seanad: Technological Universities Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Feb 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: Anyone who knows me will know that I am a strong advocate for gender equality and I have set up a task force. We will receive a report from that task force in March, which will outline ways we can ensure that women succeed in being promoted in our universities. I am sure the Senator knows as well as I do that the first university in Ireland was set up 425 years ago, and there has never been...

Seanad: Technological Universities Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Feb 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: I thank the Senator. The GDPR will come into force on 25 May 2018. It replaces the existing data protection framework under the EU data protection directive. Article 24 of the GDPR requires controllers, that is, the higher education institutions, to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure and to be able to demonstrate that processing of personal data is...

Seanad: Technological Universities Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Feb 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: The national framework of qualifications, NFQ, level 5 can refer to an honours level leaving certificate qualification as well as other types of further education. The amendment seeks to add to the requirement on applicant institutions such that as well as showing compliance with the eligibility criteria set out in section 29, an applicant institution would also demonstrate that it meets the...

Seanad: Technological Universities Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Feb 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: I want to answer that. If we go back to pages 28 to 30, inclusive, and most of page 31, they set out the bar as the Senator describes it. We are calling this bar "eligibility criteria". This includes a requirement to demonstrate compliance with the eligibility criteria. They are in the pages I have just named. Section 28 sets out in detail the eligibility criteria and makes it clear to...

Seanad: Technological Universities Bill 2015: Report Stage (21 Feb 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: The definition used in the Technological Universities Bill is in line with the Universities Act 1997. On the composition of the governing authority, section 16(2)(d)(iv) refers to "students of the university who are elected officers of the Students Union or other student representative body in the university recognised by the governing authority". Trade unions and staff associations are...

Seanad: Technological Universities Bill 2015: Report Stage (21 Feb 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: I remain of the view that the current definition which is in line with that contained in the Universities Act 1997 is preferable.

Seanad: Technological Universities Bill 2015: Report Stage (21 Feb 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: Therefore, I do not propose to accept the amendment.

Seanad: Technological Universities Bill 2015: Report Stage (21 Feb 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: An order under section 36 of the Bill will provide for the establishment of a technological university and the specification for its name. There is no requirement to specify that the technological university will be allowed to describe itself as such, as that is the purpose of section 36. Section 8(2) provides a mechanism whereby any subsequent decision on a change of name from that...

Seanad: Technological Universities Bill 2015: Report Stage (21 Feb 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: To clarify, we are talking about deleting everything after the word "functions". That subparagraph at 9(1)(k)(iv) should be read as a composite piece in its entirety. Hence clause (I) requires the technological university to contribute in a very broad fashion to, "the promotion of the economic, scientific [...] and technological development of the State", but also to the cultural and social...

Questions on Promised Legislation (28 Feb 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: Hear, hear.

Questions on Promised Legislation (28 Feb 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: Withdraw the comment.

Leaders' Questions (6 Mar 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: One minute and 19 seconds.

Seanad: Technological Universities Bill 2015: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (8 Mar 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: As Senators will be aware, we recently discussed at some length an amendment on the elements they considered appropriate to the ethos of a technological university related to section 9. They are seeking to include such elements or a further elaboration on them in a new stand-alone section. I do not take the view that such an approach is appropriate. The Bill does not purport in any section...

Seanad: Technological Universities Bill 2015: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (8 Mar 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: I will repeat myself by pointing out that I have highlighted, in considerable detail, the various elements cited by the Senator, specifically creativity, autonomy, intellectual inquiry, innovation and engaged citizenship, all of which are included in the text. The proposed amendment is surplus to requirements because all of these elements are written features on pages 11, 12 and 13 of the Bill.

Seanad: Technological Universities Bill 2015: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (8 Mar 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: Internationally, the size and composition of governing authorities of higher education institutions have been changing. The model generally favoured is a more managerial one, with a smaller number of members and a majority of non-academic, lay or external members. The OECD report on higher education in Ireland was critical of the size of university governing authorities and recommended that...