Results 421-440 of 468 for speaker:Liam Fitzgerald

Seanad: Order of Business (Resumed). (6 Jul 2006)

Liam Fitzgerald: The Cathaoirleach should ask Senator Bannon to sit down.

Seanad: Institutes of Technology Bill 2006: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2006)

Liam Fitzgerald: I propose that we amend the Order of Business to let the debate run until 1 p.m. to complete all Stages of the Bill.

Seanad: Institutes of Technology Bill 2006: Fifth Stage. (6 Jul 2006)

Liam Fitzgerald: It is obvious from her bringing forward of the Bill that the apprenticeship the Minister served from 1985 onwards, and her educational reskilling, coming as she did from a rich educational and teaching background, was not lost on her. The mission she embarked upon then has been taken to a further and much higher stage of fruition today by her enabling, facilitating and empowering the DIT and...

Seanad: Order of Business (15 Nov 2006)

Liam Fitzgerald: I hate to break Senator Bannon's flow. I agree partially with Deputy Ulick Burke that it is disturbing to read about the ongoing practice among certain schools to cherry-pick students. Like most Members, I have plenty of anecdotal evidence of this practice. Education is supposed to be about making the world a better place for all our children and future generations. Cherry-picking flies...

Seanad: Order of Business (15 Nov 2006)

Liam Fitzgerald: Cherry-picking promotes elitism, both academically and socially and that must be stopped. I disagree with Senator Ulick Burke's assertion that the Minister for Education and Science has done nothing about it. As Senator Ormonde correctly said, the Minister has confronted this issue vociferously and she has taken action. She has set in motion an audit of the enrolment policies of our schools.

Seanad: Order of Business (15 Nov 2006)

Liam Fitzgerald: Yes. The results of the audit will be published and the Minister will seek voluntary co-operation from schools to cease the practice. Will the Leader ask the Minister to come to the House for a debate on the introduction of a penalty system to ensure they do so?

Seanad: Estimates for Public Services 2007: Statements (Resumed) (23 Nov 2006)

Liam Fitzgerald: My colleague opposite has been on a rather confused and complicated odyssey of some kind to the land of nowhere. In welcoming the Minister of State, Deputy Conor Lenihan, I wish to comment on his spending plans for the coming year. He has responsibility for overseas development aid and in the short time he has been in office, he has made spectacular progress in securing a substantial...

Seanad: Estimates for Public Services 2007: Statements (Resumed) (23 Nov 2006)

Liam Fitzgerald: I do not wish to engage in an argument with the Senator. I refer to one service as a type of yardstick for the manner in which part of the considerable bundle of money available to the public is targeted, that is, the welfare of our children and the opportunities they get through education. There is no doubt from the substantial increase in money being given to, and the emphasis on,...

Seanad: Estimates for Public Services 2007: Statements (Resumed) (23 Nov 2006)

Liam Fitzgerald: There will be a meaningful beginning to the provisions of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act in the coming year. A few years ago the entire special education sector received only crumbs. Special education teachers worked hard to bring about a service to meet the needs of these children. There was no framework and despite the best endeavours of teachers, it was hit...

Seanad: Estimates for Public Services 2007: Statements (Resumed) (23 Nov 2006)

Liam Fitzgerald: This link between home and school is being more closely developed and school principals tell me these programmes have a significant impact on the communities where they are targeted. There is a huge follow-on advantage in reducing loitering, truancy and anti-social behaviour. The school completion programme is familiar to me in my constituency. I have frequently spoken to those who operate...

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Nov 2006)

Liam Fitzgerald: Does the Leader agree that it is inaccurate and unfair to say that the Minister for Education and Science is ignoring inadequate special needs facilities in feeder second level schools, where such inadequacy exists? The situation is the reverse. The Minister stated publicly in recent times that, following visits to a number of schools, she is concerned that the enrolment policies in some...

Seanad: Further and Adult Education: Statements (30 Nov 2006)

Liam Fitzgerald: I thank the Leader for affording us the opportunity to debate further and adult education with the Minister of State, who has been always accessible to and informative with this House. I understand the Minister of State announced last November her intention to step down at the next general election and to resign her office next month. On the basis of reliable speculation that this could be...

Seanad: Further and Adult Education: Statements (30 Nov 2006)

Liam Fitzgerald: They have served politics both nationally and internationally, and it would be regrettable if the name were absent after the next general election. I commend the Minister of State, Deputy de Valera, on her great commitment to caring, to the disadvantaged and to those worst off in society. Her political career has been of substance, being embroidered with political input at national and...

Seanad: Further and Adult Education: Statements (30 Nov 2006)

Liam Fitzgerald: Deputy de Valera took the left circuit of the shopping centre, and I was assigned to the right with Professor Yeats.

Seanad: Further and Adult Education: Statements (30 Nov 2006)

Liam Fitzgerald: Professor Yeats was given to postulating and philosophising, and as I saw Deputy de Valera move swiftly around, in my impatience to get him to do the same, my engagement with him was somewhat unhappy. As we all know, the Minister of State went on to capture the European seat. Around that time, she addressed us in the auditorium of Coláiste Mhuire in Parnell Square, a very impressive...

Seanad: Order of Business (1 Feb 2007)

Liam Fitzgerald: The situation concerning the CAO is a serious one. The CAO spokesperson's attitude should be condemned as being anti-student because it was insensitive to students' needs. Given that the spokesperson was unable to acknowledge that there was a problem, he should seriously consider his position. It must be acknowledged that there is a separation between the functions of the CAO and those of...

Seanad: Order of Business (Resumed) (22 Feb 2007)

Liam Fitzgerald: Will the Leader consider asking the Minister for Education and Science to come to the House to debate the report relating to the training of primary schoolteachers? Many serious and unfounded allegations have been made. For example, Senator O'Toole insinuated or stated — I am not sure which because I could not hear him very well — that the survey of 140 students was very selective. I...

Seanad: Order of Business (Resumed) (22 Feb 2007)

Liam Fitzgerald: There is a necessity for a debate on the training of primary schoolteachers because, over a three-year period — between 2003 and 2006 — at college, I became aware that a significant minority of members of the student cohort were openly stating that they had no interest in or intention of teaching. That was quite a disturbing development and it raises questions regarding aptitude, methods...

Seanad: Communications Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages (22 Feb 2007)

Liam Fitzgerald: Maybe it is a case of aithníonn ciaróg ciaróg eile.

Seanad: Communications Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2007: Report and Final Stages (Resumed) (22 Feb 2007)

Liam Fitzgerald: I listened very carefully to the points being made by the previous speakers. On the one hand there is a deep and serious validity to what they have said. I would agree with 99% of what I have heard in terms of the abusive content of messages being exchanged and the vulnerability of young and older people to harassment and intimidation and all kinds of illegal, immoral and unacceptable...