Results 8,541-8,560 of 19,032 for speaker:Ruairi Quinn

Written Answers — Schools Building Projects: Schools Building Projects (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I wish to advise the Deputy that my Department is currently in the process of acquiring a site for the school to which she refers. An application for planning permission forms part of the site acquisition process. A draft design for the school was discussed with the school authority and the design is currently being revised in light of those discussions. The Government's Medium Term...

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

Ruairi Quinn: A full list of primary 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 — Schools Building Projects: Schools Building Projects (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I am pleased to inform the Deputy that accommodation briefs for the two schools referred to by the Deputy have been completed. The appropriate method for delivery of these projects is being considered and final decisions will be communicated to the school authorities in the near future.

Seanad: Education (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: This is a standard provision which should have been included in the original text of the Bill. Amendment agreed to.

Seanad: Education (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I do not propose to accept amendments Nos. 3 and 4 in the names of Senators Rónán Mullen and Feargal Quinn. The effect of the proposals would be to maintain the position that the details of support services under section 7 of the Education Act 1998 are defined in section 2 of the Act to include speech therapy services, despite the position that such services are provided by the Health...

Seanad: Education (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I thank the Senator for raising this matter. I am informed that the legislative framework will be regularised in accordance with the de facto position, which is that the provision of speech therapy services is a matter for the HSE. That is not to say that my Department is washing its hands of the issue, which I believe is the Senator's concern. The regularisation will take place following...

Seanad: Education (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I am addressing the situation whereby in previous legislation, prior to delivery of the service, there was an ambiguity in terms of responsibility and delivery. Previous legislation provides for the Department with responsibility for a particular service to deliver, regardless of its ability, professionally or otherwise. The Senator will be aware of the disputes that arose with particular...

Seanad: Education (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: No. In reality, it never had such power, as the Senator is aware.

Seanad: Education (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I would not be so brave as to state anyone has the power to say anything to the HSE. In reality, however, we can express what our preference would be. Even the Minister for Health encounters difficulty on occasion in obtaining responses from the HSE. The legislation recognises the reality in straitened times. We have the power of persuasion and the NCSE, the agency responsible for dealing...

Seanad: Education (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: From her professional knowledge of the educational sphere which surpasses that of most Members, the Senator will be aware that the Department never had available to it the skills necessary to deliver the services in question in the first instance. The aspiration set out in previous legislation was not matched by delivery on the ground. We could not deliver to meet the gap in respect of...

Seanad: Education (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The Senator knows from her time in the House that no Minister has the power to compel any Government agency to do anything if the Department in question does not provide funding in the first instance. We do not give money to the HSE and accordingly we do not have power. We can make requests and seek co-operation, but to compel we need to write the cheques and we do not do so for this agency.

Seanad: Education (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: This is a follow-up to the debate we had earlier. It must be understood that the section we propose to amend predates the establishment of the HSE. The thrust of my argument is a repetition of what I have already articulated. To make the system work departmental responsibility must be assigned to a group of people who are subject to Cabinet responsibility and collective direction. We hope...

Seanad: Education (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Subsections (5) and (6) have been inserted in section 7 of the 1998 Act by section 40 of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act of 2004. These subsections provide that in carrying out his or her functions in respect of the provision, planning and co-ordination of support services, the Minister may, following consultation with the Minister for Health and Children,...

Seanad: Education (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The purpose of section 6 is to enact a revised text of sections 23 and 24 of the Education Act to provide for the appointment, suspension, dismissal and payment of teachers, including principal teachers and other staff, in accordance with procedures put in place by the Minister following consultation with the education partners. Section 6 also provides for an addition to section 24 of the...

Seanad: Education (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: There are a number of amendments to this section.

Seanad: Education (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I understand what the Senator is trying to do. Substituting the words "purposes of section 30" for the words "purpose of implementing section 30" is essentially a technical amendment. The substance of it is that we are substituting agreement with the word consultation. That is at the core of it. There may be other points of clarification. I do not believe that "implementing section 30"...

Seanad: Education (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: This amendment proposes that the revised sections 23 and 24 of the Education Act 1998 are designed to clarify the hierarchy within the legislation. Where publicly funded posts are concerned, the numbers and the qualifications of teachers, along with teachers' terms and conditions of employment, flow from the authority of the Minister and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. This...

Seanad: Education (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I thank the Senators for their constructive interventions on this point. I will respond to the query made by Senator Healy Eames. Before last year, when a teacher became supernumerary to the pupil-teacher ratio, PTR, in a particular school, they stayed on the panel and, in many cases, stayed in the original school. That luxury ended when we lost our economic sovereignty. Under the...

Seanad: Education (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I thank Senators for their contributions. I am happy to follow up on my undertaking, together with the social partners, to work towards a practical, working definition of what consultation and agreement might involve.

Seanad: Education (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (31 Jan 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I thank the Senators for their contributions. I understand Senator Rónán Mullen's concerns. However, we are talking about a very clear and defined area of potential industrial relations difficulties, namely, the redeployment of a teacher who has become supernumerary to one school and is appointed to a panel from which he or she must, under the employment control framework, be redeployed...