Results 961-980 of 3,797 for speaker:Ciarán Cannon

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: The National Qualifications Authority of Ireland has used the flexibility offered by the 1999 Act to work with international counterparts. We have seen a number of examples of this happening. Section 9(1)(m) sets out as a general function of the authority that there be co-operation with international bodies. A similar general function in the 1999 Act allowed the authority to develop...

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: The aim of the quality control process is not to validate courses in thermodynamics or PhDs in nanotechnology. Section 9 sets out specifically that the general functions will not necessarily apply to all providers in the same way. For example, the authority will not be obliged to validate programmes of education and training in a provider which has its own awarding powers such as a...

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: I have just returned from a visit to China where I visited nine universities and met the minister for education who has responsibility for 166 million students. While I may like to believe this little island on the edge of Europe is foremost in everyone's mind in China, Singapore, Malaysia and India, that is not the case. People in the countries I have visited or am about to visit regard...

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: In tabling amendment No. 9, Senator Barrett has identified a particular problem. He is saying we should not give responsibility to a State body for the formulation of national policy and that such a role should be one of guidance and advice. We will consider this further and bring forward an amendment on Report Stage to work with the Senator to address the problem.

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: This is a technical amendment to link the reference to the authority's function to maintain a register of providers to the definition of "register" in the interpretation section.

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: This amendment removes the function of the authority to promote its awards. The authority will be responsible under section 9(1)(a) for maintaining and promoting the national framework of qualifications. The framework contains the awards of a range of awarding bodies and it is not considered correct that the authority should promote its own awards over others in the framework. The...

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: This amendment inserts a new section into the Bill. Due to an oversight there is currently no provision in Part 2 of the Bill to enable the Minister for Education and Skills to allocate funding to the authority.

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: These amendments to sections 12 and 13 have the effect of including bodies authorised by law to make awards in the State in assisting and providing information to the authority as far as this relates to the functions of the authority and the awarding body's function. The key functions of the authority regarding these awarding bodies are those relating to the NFQ set out in section 38. It...

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: The Bill provides that the chief executive officer, CEO, shall be appointed by the authority with the consent of the Minister. I do not understand the assertion that a ministerial appointment is somehow bypassing the parliamentary process. A Minister's role is at the heart of the parliamentary process. This is a standard provision regarding the appointment of a CEO of a non-commercial State...

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: The subsections proposed for deletion by the amendment are standard provisions found throughout many legislative measures dealing with the accountability of the chief executive to Oireachtas committees other than the Committee of Public Accounts. The provision exempting CEOs from being required to give account of a matter before a court or a tribunal is important to ensure the integrity of...

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: In his earlier contribution, Senator Byrne mentioned the former President Mary Robinson and how she used this Chamber to inspire debate and significant policy movements in a number of areas across the body politic. These are the fora where such discussions take place. Once they have taken place and we decide on the direction, it is the CEO's role to implement that direction. Can the CEO...

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: This is a technical amendment that extends the list of enactments wherewith the time served by staff in the bodies to be dissolved, the NQAI, HETAC and FETAC, will be reckonable. It mirrors similar provisions in other recent enactments that cover staff transfers such as the Nurses and Midwives Act 2011 and the Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008.

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: I cannot support the amendment because it would introduce references to structures not shared by all providers. The authority must consult relevant providers, but the internal bodies through which institutions engage in consultation are the responsibility of each of these bodies. I expect and hope universities will bring these matters to the attention of their own governing authorities and...

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: It is important to point out that there was a significant consultation process before the legislation was drafted. Universities, many entities within universities and many other groups and individuals responded during that consultation process. I agree with the Senator that such consultation should be ongoing. If there are internal governance institutions within particular institutions in...

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: These are technical amendments to improve the drafting of the section.

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: Perhaps there is a misunderstanding as to what exactly we mean by research activities. It does not mean that the QQAAI is going to measure the effectiveness of research in areas of expertise in various faculties. One might question the propriety of certain international ranking procedures whereby our universities are ranked against others internationally, but they exist and they are used by...

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: As Senator Barrett is aware, all external reviews are undertaken by expert panels and it is not proposed that they would be undertaken by the authority itself. The section applies to the quality procedures of universities and ensuring they are of the highest standard. The amendment proposes to remove research activities from the quality assurance provisions of the Bill, and that is not a...

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: The Bill, as initiated, makes provision throughout for providers to make representations to the authority on a number of different matters such as: refusal by the authority to approve proposed quality assurance procedures; withdrawal by the authority of approval of quality assurance procedures; withdrawal of programme validation; determination of request for delegation of the authority to...

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: This amendment amends subsection (1) of section 34 to make clear that directions made by the authority should relate to the effectiveness of the procedures for quality assurance established by the provider concerned and the implementation of the procedures by the provider. This ensures that the authority does not make directions about matters not directly related to the effectiveness of...

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (29 Mar 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: These amendments are of a technical nature and provide for the replacement of the term "the proposed withdrawal" throughout the Bill with the term "the reasons for the proposed withdrawal". This clarifies the subject of observations submitted by providers when the authority proposes to withdraw its approval of their quality assurance of access transfer and progression procedures.