Results 561-580 of 2,735 for speaker:Marie Louise O'Donnell
- Seanad: Free Speech, Homophobia and the role of the State Broadcaster: Motion [Private Members] (18 Feb 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: "The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master - that's all". A senior banker who in his official capacity as the chief executive officer of the Bank of Ireland - the only roulette tabled banker left standing in Ireland since the crash - spoke before the Taoiseach and a huge audience last Wednesday, 12 February, at an IBEC chief executive conference in Dublin. He said, when...
- Seanad: Free Speech, Homophobia and the role of the State Broadcaster: Motion [Private Members] (18 Feb 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: This part of the motion is a benign and functionless request because it suggests that an elected Minister would do otherwise and get away with it. He would not and he could not.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Education Progamme Fees: Quality and Qualifications Ireland (19 Feb 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: I believe the networking is nothing to be feared. It can be a good problem because fresh combinations brought together with an overarching legalisation or fee-paying structure or whatever could be a good thing. I have spent a good deal of time in community education structures and I know that sometimes they can feel isolated. If someone was around somewhere else doing the same thing and if...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Education Progamme Fees: Quality and Qualifications Ireland (19 Feb 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: It is the job of ICTU to ensure that does not happen.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Education Progamme Fees: Quality and Qualifications Ireland (19 Feb 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: Yes, but I was not altogether convinced by the ICTU paper. I thought it came down on both sides. ICTU sees the QQI as a good thing but I was not altogether convinced that it had an argument.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Education Progamme Fees: Quality and Qualifications Ireland (19 Feb 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: It is a good thing.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Education Progamme Fees: Quality and Qualifications Ireland (19 Feb 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: I am talking about the fee structure, which is specifically what we are discussing. The ICTU did not necessarily convince me, although perhaps it will do so in future. In some ways the ICTU is protected. There are many waivers and there is the facility to engage and network. Why was I not convinced? Why did I reach the conclusion that the ICTU is on the edge and did not convince me?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Education Progamme Fees: Quality and Qualifications Ireland (19 Feb 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: I know that, but while, in one sense, the ICTU wants standards and quality, in another sense, we know that resources have gone from €14 million to €6 million. In another way, the ICTU has argued that if a course is done in one place and it costs money, then the same course to the same standard cannot be given free elsewhere. Was that not one of the arguments we heard?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Education Progamme Fees: Quality and Qualifications Ireland (19 Feb 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: Of course.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Education Progamme Fees: Quality and Qualifications Ireland (19 Feb 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: Outside?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Education Progamme Fees: Quality and Qualifications Ireland (19 Feb 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: Surely that depends on the situation.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Education Progamme Fees: Quality and Qualifications Ireland (19 Feb 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: That is a problem.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Education Progamme Fees: Quality and Qualifications Ireland (19 Feb 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: It is a critical problem getting people to engage in education-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Education Progamme Fees: Quality and Qualifications Ireland (19 Feb 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: -----who have been out of education or left school early. It is a very critical problem.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Education Progamme Fees: Quality and Qualifications Ireland (19 Feb 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: We are talking about a literacy and numeracy level, not about awards and merits and medals. We are obsessed with awards, merits and medals in this country, and with academic versus vocational education, when vocational education is the very thing on which the Government depends now for apprenticeships and to get people back to active hands-on work. I absolutely agree with Mr. Vaughan that...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Education Progamme Fees: Quality and Qualifications Ireland (19 Feb 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: That is a very good point. In many of the centres I have visited the problem is not that young people do not want to engage; it is that the literacy and numeracy level is very low and they are starting from a very disadvantaged point, regardless of the fact that they are there every day. The literacy levels are below par and below the level that would allow them get to a course or training....
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Education Progamme Fees: Quality and Qualifications Ireland (19 Feb 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: I would not like Mr. Vaughan to think for one minute that even though I might agree with QQI and its fee structure, I would not lean towards helping those who are furthest away from possibilities and furthest away from getting an opportunity in the main game. My argument was about people who may be pre-school, that we are back to that level and the efforts by the Government to raise that bar...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Education Progamme Fees: Quality and Qualifications Ireland (19 Feb 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: The issue is very young.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Education Progamme Fees: Quality and Qualifications Ireland (19 Feb 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: We shall hold Ms O'Brien to that.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Quality and Standards in Schools: Chief Inspector at Department of Education and Skills (19 Feb 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: I am in no hurry to get to the Seanad Chamber for the debate on greyhound racing.