Results 521-540 of 743 for speaker:Jim D'Arcy
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Jim D'Arcy: What I want to know is whether the two gentlemen concerned are happy with the capital and the budget. Is there any problem with the summer works scheme?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Jim D'Arcy: Yes; we are straying into the next programme. We will leave it at that. My other question related to fee-paying schools.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Jim D'Arcy: Subhead B5 on page 21 of the Department's briefing document deals with grants to SOLAS for further education and training activities. There are five education and training boards which do not have direct control over training activities in their functional areas. We have created children of a lesser God in the sense that five out of 11 boards must work under the chief executive officer of...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Jim D'Arcy: Have there been queries from more than one area?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Jim D'Arcy: I do not like to interrupt, but it is a very important sector.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Jim D'Arcy: In this country the statistic is 70% with degrees. We are looking at it through the wrong end of the telescope. In Germany the statistic is 50% with degrees and it has a huge skills sector based on the guild system that has been in place for centuries. We must adopt a twin track approach to the issue of skills. As was said here previously, an apprentice - there will be 20 new...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Jim D'Arcy: For years lip service was paid to that concept, but I am very confident, having listened to the Minister of State previously and the Minister today and after talking to Mr. O'Flaherty who is an excellent public servant, that in the next couple of years we will see a new attitude to the skills and training sector in the education system and greater self-esteem for those who take that route.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Jim D'Arcy: That is something that needs to change.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Jim D'Arcy: I would like more information on that issue.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Jim D'Arcy: I agree with Senator Power. Was it the case that during the boom years there was not much school building going on? I know there were plenty of summer works schemes but I do not think there were many big capital programmes in the education sector because there was a shortage of engineers. Relative to the wealth of the economy at that time, there was not a large amount of school building...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Jim D'Arcy: I understand. I support the concept of an accelerated building programme, which the Minister would like if she got the money.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Jim D'Arcy: Is the list of schools on the five-year programme updated and revised on annual basis?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Jim D'Arcy: Is it added to?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Jim D'Arcy: I suggest that they are added and subtracted if schools have missed out on being in the programme. The list should not be set in stone but reviewed annually and, if necessary, schools not on the list could be added.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Jim D'Arcy: I know but I am talking about new schools.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Jim D'Arcy: I made the proposal at the time, not to the Minister but to the Minister's advisers.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Jim D'Arcy: That is a big question and I agree with the Minister.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Jim D'Arcy: It is the Minister's job to make decisions.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Jim D'Arcy: I come from a local authority background and the roads programme is looked at each year. There is a five-year roads programme but year 1 is not the same as year 2, year 3, etc. Substantial revisions take place and that is the point I am making.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Jim D'Arcy: I am not talking about adjusting the programme and the Minister will know what is meant by the word "adjusting".