Results 5,801-5,820 of 8,873 for speaker:Batt O'Keeffe

Written Answers — Special Educational Needs: Special Educational Needs (28 May 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: As the Deputy will be aware, the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), for allocating resource teachers and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) to schools to support children with special needs. The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support. Applications for SNAs...

Written Answers — Site Acquisitions: Site Acquisitions (28 May 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: The OPW has been recently instructed to recommence negotiations up to contract stage for a site for the school. Due to commercial sensitivities attaching to site acquisitions generally, the Deputy will appreciate that I am not in a position to comment on the details of the matter. The further consideration of the proposed site acquisition and any subsequent building project for the...

Written Answers — Schools Building Projects: Schools Building Projects (28 May 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: My Department has built an 8 classroom building for the school to which the Deputy refers. The building, which opened in September 2008, meets the immediate accommodation requirements of the area to which the Deputy refers. The Forward Planning Section of my Department is currently identifying the areas throughout the country where significant additional accommodation will be needed at...

Written Answers — Site Acquisitions: Site Acquisitions (28 May 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: The acquisition of a site for the school to which the Deputy refers will be considered in the context of the capital budget available to my Department for school buildings generally. In light of current competing demands on the capital budget of my Department, it is not possible to give an indicative timeframe for the acquisition of a school site at this time. Forward Planning Section of...

Confidence in Government: Motion (9 Jun 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: The political background to this motion is the outcome of last week's local, European and by-elections, which the Taoiseach acknowledged today produced poor results by Fianna Fáil's standards. It was an especially difficult campaign because we found ourselves in very difficult economic circumstances and the Government has had to take very tough decisions. People are clearly angry about...

Confidence in Government: Motion (9 Jun 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: Aside from the political instability a general election would cause, it is perhaps worth recalling what might be in store for the Irish people should Fine Gael and Labour form a coalition Government. The Irish people deserve to know how they would reconcile their differences. Fine Gael calls for more spending cuts and a bigger reduction in the deficit than Labour. On the banks, they are...

Confidence in Government: Motion (9 Jun 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: -----contrasts sharply with a Fine Gael Dáil motion suggesting a one point increase on both tax rates and a cut in tax credits.

Confidence in Government: Motion (9 Jun 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: Meanwhile, Labour dodges saying where savings would be made and yet wants to spend more. From where would the tax revenue come? The party would risk putting Ireland at loggerheads with the European Commission and the European Central Bank and frighten financial markets. Labour lectures the Government on the banking system yet it opposed the bank guarantee.

Confidence in Government: Motion (9 Jun 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: The reality is that Fine Gael and Labour are trying to hoodwink the Irish people with a set of populist con-job policies that would drive the country into deeper recession. They are abusing their positions of responsibility by dodging the tough policy decisions that must be taken to get this country out of severe economic difficulties. In times like these, Ireland does not need fair weather...

Confidence in Government: Motion (9 Jun 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: These are just some of ways in which the dividend of a decade of economic growth was invested in communities across this country. The fact is that no one predicted that Lehman Brothers would crash and that Northern Bank would fall.

Confidence in Government: Motion (9 Jun 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: No one can claim that Ireland, as an open and small economy, should be immune from a 13% fall in world trade or that we could have avoided the impact of the credit crunch arising from a global banking system in crisis and the changes in the exchange rates between sterling and the euro. Greed and gross irresponsibility in some quarters of the private sector make our task today much more...

Written Answers — Capitation Grants: Capitation Grants (9 Jun 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: My Department does not provide specific grants to schools for swimming. Schools, such as that referred to by the Deputy, have flexibility to prioritise their needs and to use their general capitation funding to support the implementation of the curriculum, including Physical Education. Primary school capitation grants have been increased substantially in recent years. The primary school...

Written Answers — Special Educational Needs: Special Educational Needs (9 Jun 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: As the Deputy will be aware, the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), for allocating resource teachers and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) to schools to support children with special needs. The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support. The NCSE will undertake...

Written Answers — Schools Refurbishment: Schools Refurbishment (9 Jun 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: The details sought by the Deputy relating to schools in the Dublin 15 area whose applications were approved for funding under the current Summer Works Scheme are included in a tabular statement relating to the complete Fingal Area. It would not be appropriate at this stage to make public the level of funding approved for schools as to do so might compromise the tendering process. Details of...

Written Answers — Schools Building Projects: Schools Building Projects (9 Jun 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: The project to which the Deputy refers is at an early stage of Architectural Planning. As the Deputy will be aware, in February, I announced details of 43 major building projects to proceed to tender and construction and 25 high priority projects to commence architectural planning. The project to which the Deputy refers was not included in this announcement. Therefore the project is...

Written Answers — School Accommodation: School Accommodation (9 Jun 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: The standard size of a classroom being delivered for primary schools, whether through the generic repeat design (GRD) concept or traditional design, at primary level is 80 sq metres, including wet area, w/c's, storage and cloakroom facilities. 80 sq. metres is considered to be the optimum size of classroom and was determined by studies carried out by my Department and in line with...

Written Answers — Special Education Needs: Special Education Needs (9 Jun 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: As the Deputy will be aware, the general allocation model was introduced in primary schools in September 2005 to ensure that each school has learning support/resource teaching support available to meet the needs of children with high incidence special educational needs including children with mild general learning disabilities. When the model commenced, a commitment was given to carry out a...

Written Answers — School Staffing: School Staffing (9 Jun 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: Historically the State funds chaplains in Community and Comprehensive schools and designated Community Colleges under the VEC. It does so in accordance with agreements reached with Church Authorities at the time of first establishment of those types of schools and reflected in the Deed of Trust for Community Schools and the Model Agreement for Community Colleges. The relevant religious...

Written Answers — Schools Building Projects: Schools Building Projects (9 Jun 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: I can confirm to the Deputy that an application for an extension/refurbishment was received from the school to which he refers. The application was assessed in accordance with the published prioritisation criteria for large scale building projects by my Department and assigned a Band rating of 2.4. The progression of all large scale building projects, including the project in question, from...

Written Answers — Special Educational Needs: Special Educational Needs (9 Jun 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: I wish to assure the Deputy that there will be no pupil with a special educational need who will be without access to support from a special needs teacher as a result of the decision to apply the normal rules which govern the appointment and retention of teachers of special classes for pupils with a mild general learning disability. Pupils with a mild general learning disability have, and...