Results 8,501-8,520 of 19,032 for speaker:Ruairi Quinn

Private Members' Business. Small Primary Schools: Motion (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Fianna Fáil acts as if we are in normal times, opposing virtually every measure the Government is required to take. One would be hard pressed to find constructive proposals from it to find savings in education, other than vague references to getting more out of the Croke Park agreement.

Private Members' Business. Small Primary Schools: Motion (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The Fianna Fáil Party is behaving like the Lady Macbeth of Irish politics, shouting: "Out damn'd spot! Out, I say!".

Private Members' Business. Small Primary Schools: Motion (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The Deputies opposite should not provoke me through their heckling as I may get closer to the bone.

Private Members' Business. Small Primary Schools: Motion (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Fianna Fáil does not come into this debate with clean political hands. As a former Minister for Education, the party's current leader, Deputy Micheál Martin, is aware that almost 80% of my budget is expended on pay and pensions. He also knows we must find places and teachers for the additional 70,000 primary and secondary school pupils who will avail of our school buildings over the next...

Private Members' Business. Small Primary Schools: Motion (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: What members of the public would like to hear from Fianna Fáil is where it suggests savings in jobs and expenditure can be made in education. What teaching posts would it suppress, what grants would it reduce or abolish and what other measures would it take? It cannot pretend it does not have the basic data on which to base its recommendations, as it was long enough in government to know...

Private Members' Business. Small Primary Schools: Motion (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: This little island of ours, with its relatively small population, has been riven by divisions of one kind or another for the past 200 to 300 years. We do not need a new, manufactured and artificial division. I may represent an urban constituency but nobody could fail to appreciate the importance of rural communities to our society. Small rural communities are a cornerstone of our heritage...

Private Members' Business. Small Primary Schools: Motion (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: In many rural communities, the school, Protestant and Catholic churches, GAA club and local shop are the institutions on and around which the community is built. These are foundations we must seek to protect. However, the continuing trend towards urbanisation continues to pose a threat to these foundations and it is one that we cannot ignore. Between 1963 and 1973, two revered leaders of...

Private Members' Business. Small Primary Schools: Motion (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: In many communities the urbanisation trend has already resulted in the closure of the rural shop or pub. We must have a genuine conversation about the role that can be played by rural schools and how we can reshape our school system to ensure these communities are supported and maintained. Let us have this debate in the context of the second decade of the 21st century. Let us examine what...

Private Members' Business. Small Primary Schools: Motion (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Even when all of the phased increases are implemented, the threshold for a second teacher at 20 pupils - that is 1:10 if one evens it out - will still be significantly lower than the minimum of 28 pupils that was required for the appointment of the second teacher in rural schools prior to the late 1990s. The extremely favourable staffing provision for small schools was put in place when...

Private Members' Business. Small Primary Schools: Motion (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Last Friday, speaking at the Irish Primary Principals Network Conference, I undertook to enter into discussions with it about international research and possible 21st century options for small rural schools which exist in different countries and situations. Small schools close but that is because of a loss of pupils. Small primary schools which have had to face closure in recent years were...

Private Members' Business. Small Primary Schools: Motion (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Incidentally, this review was initiated by the previous Government, of which Deputy Calleary was a member-----

Private Members' Business. Small Primary Schools: Motion (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Those opposite started it.

Private Members' Business. Small Primary Schools: Motion (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: It is part of the normal processes undertaken by all Departments on selected areas of expenditure and is being conducted in line with the standard procedure for value for money reviews. As the report was initiated by a Fianna Fáil Minister, I trust the party will not now respond by creating fear among communities about a process it initiated. I expect that the report of the review should...

Private Members' Business. Small Primary Schools: Motion (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Yes.

Private Members' Business. Small Primary Schools: Motion (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: No teacher will lose his or her job.

Written Answers — Credit Availability: Credit Availability (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The school to which the Deputy refers has recently submitted an application for capital funding to my Department. The application will be considered and a decision will be conveyed to the school authority as soon as this process has been completed.

Written Answers — Higher Education Grants: Higher Education Grants (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The decision on eligibility for a student grant is a matter for the relevant grant awarding authority. Reckonable income for student grants purposes is gross income from all sources. Therefore, the assessing authorities use the profit or loss as shown by the statement of rental income and no allowance is made for the interest associated with rental income. The Deputy will appreciate that in...

Written Answers — School Staffing: School Staffing (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The new simplified approach to the General Allocation Model of support for schools will make it easier to automatically update it annually in line with the changes in the number of classroom teachers in each school. Schools will also have autonomy on how to deploy the resource between language support and learning support depending on their specific needs. The arrangements for the staffing...

Written Answers — School Staffing: School Staffing (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I propose to take Questions Nos. 208, 219 and 245 to 251, inclusive, together. At a time of great strain in our public finances, we have to ensure that the very valuable but limited resources available for the education system are used in the best way possible. The staffing schedule at primary level disproportionately benefits small primary schools. It is worth noting that we have 3,200...

Written Answers — Special Educational Needs: Special Educational Needs (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The Deputy will be aware that my Department's home tuition scheme provides funding to parents to provide education at home for children who, for a number of reasons such as chronic illness, are unable to attend school. The scheme was extended in recent years to facilitate tuition for children awaiting a suitable educational placement and also to provide early educational intervention for...