Results 13,081-13,100 of 24,567 for speaker:Róisín Shortall

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (28 Jun 2017)

Róisín Shortall: I cannot understand why the Minister is proposing that 25% of places would be set aside. I do not know what the justification for that is. I heard him say that continuity is important and that we ought to protect the continuity. We can replace the word "continuity" with the word "elitism", and that is essentially what this is about - that elitism ought to be protected. I am horrified at...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (28 Jun 2017)

Róisín Shortall: It discriminates.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (28 Jun 2017)

Róisín Shortall: This part of the Bill deals with admissions policies and sets out what a board can and cannot do when preparing an admissions policy. Included in this part of the Bill is a provision to allow a school the right to refuse admission where the child is not of the same denomination as that promoted by the school. This amendment would remove that right.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (28 Jun 2017)

Róisín Shortall: I will reserve my right until Report Stage.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (28 Jun 2017)

Róisín Shortall: This part of the Bill deals with the designation of a special needs child to a school, in particular where parents have been unable to find a suitable place. It sets down the procedure to be followed by the NCSE or the Child and Family Agency for designating a special needs child to a school. Included in this is an appeals process where the school may appeal against this decision. The...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (28 Jun 2017)

Róisín Shortall: If the best interests of the child applied we would not have discrimination on religious grounds. It is not any consolation this might be the case. The Minister has already spelled out he has deleted the grounds on which places can be refused relating to section 7(3)(c). My point is that having deleted this, the Minister's amendment seeking to reference the admissions policy of schools in...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (28 Jun 2017)

Róisín Shortall: That is not explicit. It could well be interpreted in that way. It is providing local schools' admissions policies as a grounds for appeal. The Minister does not say it only relates to gender or special needs. The admissions policies of schools in the locality covers the right to refuse on the grounds of religion.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (28 Jun 2017)

Róisín Shortall: I thank the Minister.

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest: Statements (29 Jun 2017)

Róisín Shortall: The draconian cuts in pay and pensions were introduced at a very different time in this country. There was a financial emergency and there may have been some kind of justification for the cuts at the time. The public expected the Government to deal with the awful situation in which the country found itself but it expected this would be done in a fair way. Unfortunately that was not the...

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest: Statements (29 Jun 2017)

Róisín Shortall: People at that level could have held off for longer and priority should have been given to other sectors within the public service. The unwinding of FEMPI is taking too long for people on middle and low incomes. The glaring area that needs to be addressed is new entrants.

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest: Statements (29 Jun 2017)

Róisín Shortall: That does not mean everything else is fine. I and others have received letters from pensioners in their late seventies or eighties regarding the pension levy. There is something very wrong about such people having to pay a pension levy. New entrants have been treated disgracefully by the FEMPI cuts. There is a pay generation gap where people are receiving unequal treatment. We are...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement Reports (29 Jun 2017)

Róisín Shortall: 73. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation further to Parliamentary Question No. 54 of 22 June 2017, if she has received the report on the collapse of the trial in question from the ODCE; if so, if she will publish the report without delay; her plans regarding the recommendations made; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30715/17]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Medical Card Administration (29 Jun 2017)

Róisín Shortall: 204. To ask the Minister for Health the status of the work of the clinical advisory group on medical card eligibility; his plans to publish the interim reports of the group; the date on which the final report of the group will be submitted to him; the timeframe for the publication of same; the status of the commitment in the programme for Government that the group examine guidelines for the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Expenditure (4 Jul 2017)

Róisín Shortall: 158. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of increasing the non-adjacent maintenance grant to €4,025 for full-time students at undergraduate and postgraduate level, respectively. [30801/17]

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Expenditure (4 Jul 2017)

Róisín Shortall: 159. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of increasing the adjacent maintenance grant to €2,215 for full-time students at undergraduate and postgraduate level, respectively. [30802/17]

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Expenditure (4 Jul 2017)

Róisín Shortall: 160. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of extending a non-adjacent maintenance grant to €4,025 to part-time students at undergraduate and postgraduate level, respectively. [30803/17]

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Expenditure (4 Jul 2017)

Róisín Shortall: 161. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of extending the adjacent maintenance grant to €2,215 to part-time students at undergraduate and postgraduate level, respectively. [30804/17]

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Patronage (4 Jul 2017)

Róisín Shortall: 186. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the way in which he will ensure that no religious belief is favoured over other religious beliefs or none in his proposed reconfiguration of church controlled schools to education and training boards; if his attention has been drawn to the widespread concern over the lack of transparency of this process; if existing patrons will have a role in...

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Human Rights (4 Jul 2017)

Róisín Shortall: 256. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade further to Parliamentary Question No. 650 of 2 May 2017, if he will provide an update on the efforts of the Government to raise the detention of LGBT persons in Chechnya on both a bilateral and multilateral level; if concerns have been raised with the Russian embassy in Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31237/17]

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Legal Services Regulation (4 Jul 2017)

Róisín Shortall: 293. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality his views on the monopoly that a college (details supplied) has on the training and accreditation of barristers; and his plans to open this up to competition. [31338/17]