Results 8,301-8,320 of 19,032 for speaker:Ruairi Quinn

Written Answers — School Accommodation: School Accommodation (18 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: A nearby school has been authorised by my Department to explore the possibility of transferring the prefabs in question to its own site for continued use. It is anticipated that the prefabs will be removed from the current site in the very near future.

Written Answers — Schools Building Projects: Schools Building Projects (18 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The building project for the school referred to by the Deputy is currently at an advanced stage of architectural planning. The Design Team are currently working on finalising the Stage 2(b) Submission (Detailed Design) which will then be submitted to my Department for review. The 2012 construction programme was published in December. Following on from this, my Department will shortly...

Written Answers — Site Acquisitions: Site Acquisitions (18 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Further to my previous reply to the Deputy on this matter, I can confirm that my Department has received legal advice with regard to the proposed land swap as referred to by the Deputy. My Department is agreeable to this land swap and will issue the necessary permissions through the Office the Chief State Solicitor.

Written Answers — Disadvantaged Status: Disadvantaged Status (18 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I propose to take Questions Nos. 86 and 87 together. Conscious of the concerns of some schools that will be adversely affected by the budget measures in relation to the withdrawal of certain posts under previous disadvantage schemes, I announced in the house last Wednesday that I have asked my Department to report to me in four weeks on the impact of the withdrawal of posts under these older...

Written Answers — Appointments to State Boards: Appointments to State Boards (18 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The information requested by the Deputy is provided in the following table. Appointments made to Boards under the aegis of the Department of Education and Skills (by year) Agency 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012( To Date) An Chomhairle um Oideachais Gaeltachta agus Gaelscolaíochta 0 0 22 0 0 Commission into Child Abuse 0 0 0 0 0 Education Finance Board 1 9 0 0 0 Foras Áiseanna Saothair (See...

Written Answers — School Enrolments: School Enrolments (18 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: A full list of schools in county order with their enrolments can be found on my Department's website at the following link http://www.education.ie/home/home.jsp?pcategory=10917&ecateg ory=12016&language=EN.

Written Answers — School Inspection Reports: School Inspection Reports (18 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I have previously clarified for the Deputy that the Board of Management of the school in question has advised that the recommendations of the HSE report have been implemented in full. My Department remains in regular contact with the school and is satisfied that significant progress has been made in this regard. The Deputy refers to the further report which was compiled subsequent to the HSE...

Written Answers — Disadvantaged Status: Disadvantaged Status (18 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The information which the Deputy has requested is available on the Social Inclusion section of my Department's website at following link - http://www.education.ie/servlet/blobservlet/deis_school_list .htm.

Written Answers — Special Educational Needs: Special Educational Needs (18 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I propose to take Questions Nos. 92 to 94, inclusive, together. I wish to advise the Deputy that the revised arrangements, which will update schools' General Allocation Model (GAM) allocations, based on the number of class teaching posts in schools for the previous year, reflect existing arrangements whereby differing pupil teacher ratios are applied under the GAM in relation to boys, girls...

Written Answers — Higher Education Grants: Higher Education Grants (18 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: While the areas of responsibility referred to are a matter for my colleague the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, student supports come under my remit. I appreciate the Deputy's concerns. However, this Government has had to take difficult and unpalatable decisions under Budget 2012. For this reason, unfortunately, less support will be available to some students going to college...

School Staffing (19 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 and 2 together. I announced in the House on 11 January that my Department will be reporting to me within four weeks on the impact of the withdrawal of certain posts allocated under previous disadvantaged schemes in DEIS Band 1 and Band 2 primary schools, following concerns raised with me by some schools that will be adversely affected by these budget...

School Staffing (19 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: There never was any intention to remove any of the DEIS Band 1 and Band 2 allocations to those schools. What was proposed with the introduction of DEIS in the mid-2000s was that in schools located in DEIS areas which, prior to the introduction of DEIS, had received disadvantaged status of a particular kind and had received, as a consequence, some posts - a much smaller number than those of...

School Staffing (19 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I agree with the Deputy Crowe analysis of the perception out there. An existing DEIS school that does not have any legacy posts could be scheduled to lose a post because numbers have fallen under the general allocation model. That number projected to possibly come out of the system was presented by some of the schools' advocates to Members of the Oireachtas as part and parcel of the specific...

School Staffing (19 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Nobody is disputing that.

School Staffing (19 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: On Deputy Smith's question, unfortunately my predecessors - his colleagues - did not upgrade the information gathering system and we still use pigeon post to send the data. The census is completed manually by each school at the end of September and then it has to be collated manually.

School Staffing (19 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: It is an enormous exercise considering that 3,200 primary schools must fill in, perhaps, 20 fields of information. The information cannot even be filed electronically. We had the data from the previous year last September. I am hoping to address the issue but the Department's data system is not great and, unlike the Department of Social Protection, the data do not speak to each other. I...

School Staffing (19 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The Deputy will be aware that the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, is responsible through its network of local special educational needs organisers for allocating special needs assistants, SNAs, to schools to support children with special educational needs. Some 10,297 of the total 10,575 SNA posts available for allocation have now been allocated to schools by the NCSE, leaving...

School Staffing (19 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The Department does not allocate resources because this is the responsibility of the council. Given that it is a specialist council which draws on professional inputs, I will not second-guess it as a politician nor will the civil servants in my Department who lack the necessary qualifications second-guess it. I regard the appeals system as independent and the Department has no role in...

School Staffing (19 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I will not interfere with the professional assessment of people who are charged with making decisions on allocating resources. The fact that they have provision for 10,575 posts does not mean they have to allocate all of them. If they did so they would be applying different criteria. People who were refused SNA resources six months ago could find that SNAs were allocated in cases where the...

School Staffing (19 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Guidance is a whole school activity and under existing arrangements each school is expected to develop a school guidance plan as a means of supporting the needs of its students. These requirements have not changed and my Department's forthcoming circular will make this clear and point schools to the relevant documentation and guidance available to support such work by schools.