Results 12,041-12,060 of 19,032 for speaker:Ruairi Quinn

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Forthcoming Education, Youth and Culture Council: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (14 Nov 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I will try to answer all the questions. If I miss any, I ask to be reminded of them. With regard to Deputy McConalogue’s opening question on funding for Erasmus for All, the money is due to double in real terms over seven years. In the past seven years, there have been approximately 18,000 Irish students participating in the programme abroad. However, this is only half the number...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Forthcoming Education, Youth and Culture Council: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (14 Nov 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Every intervention is an attempt to reverse outcomes and to try to steer the market in a particular way. They do not always work to the full extent to which they were designed and on entering such a programme, some participants find it really were not for them. The Senator, as a professional educationalist, will be aware of such matters with regard to people starting a course and then...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Forthcoming Education, Youth and Culture Council: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (14 Nov 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Forthcoming Education, Youth and Culture Council: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (14 Nov 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: It is out of €7 billion. I will get the full figures for the Senator. As I do not have the full figures to hand here, I will write to the Senator with the full details.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Forthcoming Education, Youth and Culture Council: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (14 Nov 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Forthcoming Education, Youth and Culture Council: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (14 Nov 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: To be honest, were I to give the Senator indicative figures at this point, I would be misleading her. The matter is in flux and we simply do not know. While this is what the Commission seeks, it does not mean the total amount will be increased and nor does it mean that the massive percentage increase that the Commission is seeking under this particular subhead will be increased.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Forthcoming Education, Youth and Culture Council: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (14 Nov 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Senator Power raised a question about the Erasmus programme. In general, I would love to see increased participation in the programme and it is one issue I personally want to try to raise in the forthcoming year. As the Senator is aware from her own previous experience, the original intention was to improve mobility of students within the European space and in so doing, to enhance a sense...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Forthcoming Education, Youth and Culture Council: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (14 Nov 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The points would be much less because they have spare spaces.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Forthcoming Education, Youth and Culture Council: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (14 Nov 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: While one cannot be definitive about this, all the evidence we have to date suggests that most of the Irish students who go abroad to study do so in courses that require high levels of points here in Ireland, and which they were unable to get into in the first instance. They include medicine and related medical courses such as physiotherapy, either in England, Scotland or Wales, and in some...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Forthcoming Education, Youth and Culture Council: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (14 Nov 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I have not finished.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Forthcoming Education, Youth and Culture Council: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (14 Nov 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Can Senator Power remind me of her question on professional qualifications? According to my note, it was on whether we were concentrating on any particular ones.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Forthcoming Education, Youth and Culture Council: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (14 Nov 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: From an Irish point of view, we have no particular national areas that we want to protect or are concerned about. Our commitment is to facilitate the implementation of a European Union decision which has got to this point and which has to be taken over the line - in other words, to get the European Parliament and European Council to agree. However, there is no Irish perspective of areas...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Forthcoming Education, Youth and Culture Council: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (14 Nov 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: To the best of my knowledge, none of those problems has been brought to our attention. As part of our EU Presidency, we will be talking to the various professional institutes here to ascertain if they have particular concerns in that area. I will deal quickly with one or two other issues that were raised. I have no proposals for smoke-free campuses.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Forthcoming Education, Youth and Culture Council: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (14 Nov 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: No. I have enough to do at the moment, to be honest.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Forthcoming Education, Youth and Culture Council: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (14 Nov 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Deputy Harris raised two questions about teacher education and learning from other people's experience with SNAs. Following recommendations from an international review group, called Initial Teacher Education, we have decided to implement a recommendation on the rationalisation of teacher education provision. That is on top of a decision made on implementing the literacy and numeracy...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Forthcoming Education, Youth and Culture Council: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (14 Nov 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Because we are in the programme with the International Monetary Fund and the European institutions, we are a programme country and therefore there were no specific recommendations in relation to us. We are being taken out and treated separately until we regain full sovereignty.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Applications (15 Nov 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Under the terms of the student grant scheme, grant assistance is awarded to students who meet the prescribed conditions of funding including those relating to nationality, residency, previous academic attainment and means. The eligibility criteria for student grants is reviewed annually and set out in the student grant scheme and the student support regulations each year. Students awarded a...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Applications (15 Nov 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Officials in my Department have confirmed with SUSI, the new centralised grant awarding authority, that further supporting documentation was requested from the student referred to by the Deputy on 2nd November 2012. When the documentation is returned to SUSI the student will be notified directly of the outcome.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teacher Training (15 Nov 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I propose to take Questions Nos. 108 and 122 together. I have accepted the recommendations set out in a report commissioned by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) on the structures of initial teacher education. The purpose of the report, which I requested, was to identify new possible structures to improve initial teacher education in Ireland so that it is comparable with the best in the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Payments (15 Nov 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The following table details the number of students both new and renewal who received student grants from the academic year 2008/09 to 2011/12. A student grant comprises of two elements maintenance and fees with a number of students only qualifying for one of those elements. This data is compiled from information supplied to my Department by the 66 grant awarding authorities and is not...