Results 13,421-13,440 of 19,032 for speaker:Ruairi Quinn

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Broadband Services Speeds (6 Mar 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: Education Centres are statutory bodies and are managed by voluntary Management Committees which are elected annually. Education Centres are the delivery mechanism for the delivery of CPD for teachers throughout the country. Centres also organise a varied local programme of activities for teachers, school management and parents in response to demand. The Education Centres are funded by my...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Skills Development (6 Mar 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: The Expert Group on Future Skills Needs, which is funded by my Department, plays a key role in advising on future skills needs and any emerging gaps. Its research provides a valuable input to the development of course curricula and has also informed the development of new competitive funding models of provision to address emerging skills needs. The Springboard programme targets funding of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Education Budget: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (6 Mar 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: We live in difficult times, as all members know. My commitment to fairness in society remains strong and is made very clear in the 2013 education budget. The pupil-teacher ratio in primary schools has been protected for the 2013-14 school year. For mainstream schools, this is the second year in a row that we have managed to protect the pupil-teacher ratios, despite the pressures on the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Education Budget: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (6 Mar 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: With the Chairperson's permission, I will take the questions that were common to all four questioners first. I will then go back to the individual questions from Deputies McConalogue, O'Brien and Ó Ríordáin. As regards capital assets, the only assessment made in the allocation of application for support is on the income of the family house. No other asset test is currently...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Education Budget: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (6 Mar 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: It would not apply to the next academic year. It would be the year after, because there would be issues such as implementation and getting the information. That is assuming we reach a decision fairly quickly. The issue of fee-paying schools was the other one mentioned by most members. Last year, we raised the pupil-teacher ratio for fee-paying schools - 55 of them - from 21:1 to 23:1....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Education Budget: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (6 Mar 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: We have asked them to come back to us as soon as possible. The sooner we have the information, the sooner we can construct a response. The longer they take, however, the more problematic it becomes for us. If the Deputy has any influence I ask him to use it to get them to speed up the process.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Education Budget: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (6 Mar 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: Deputy McConalogue also raised the question of career guidance and the mainstreaming effect it has had. The youth crisis in our society that has resulted in tragedies like suicide contains some elements related to the school environment and others from outside our schools. I refer the Deputy to a substantial survey carried out by the National Council for Guidance in Education, the director...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Education Budget: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (6 Mar 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: We have, for example, produced guidelines and ways to put in place a book lending and library scheme, showed how it can be done and invited schools to do it. We have provided grants in that direction. There is an element of leading the pack and creating the conditions. If we could have the generic uniforms costed, a parent representative could say the existing uniform costs X and every...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Education Budget: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (6 Mar 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: That would do us a great favour if the committee could do the work for us. There is a great deal of pressure on us as we lose staff. If that work was done by the committee, I would be keen to respond to it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Education Budget: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (6 Mar 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: There will be movement fairly soon on section 37. On DEIS schools we do not have the information here. I have spoken to the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Fitzgerald, because her Department is also involved and acts as a kind of link. The present interaction is not satisfactory. I am not sure what we can do about it, but I know it is a problem and I thank Senator Power...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Higher Education Grants Eligibility Criteria (7 Mar 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: The capital assets test implementation group report will go to Cabinet in the coming weeks. Due to timetabling issues I cannot be more specific about a date at this time. The Deputy will understand that I am not in a position to provide details of the contents of the report until I have completed my own consideration of those details and discussed them with my Cabinet colleagues. I can...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Higher Education Grants Eligibility Criteria (7 Mar 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I am not in a position to answer the Deputy's supplementary in the way he would like. It is part of the convention of collective Cabinet responsibility that I must bring proposals to that group in the first instance for their consideration. It would be improper of me to speculate in advance of Cabinet colleagues having a chance to consider the memorandum. This is an important issue and...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Higher Education Grants Eligibility Criteria (7 Mar 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: As I said more recently to Deputy Dara Calleary on "The Week in Politics", manipulation of accounts was a feature of the past. It is less possible to do now, not because people have changed their ways but because the Revenue authorities and the taxation code are more stringent and transparent.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Higher Education Grants Eligibility Criteria (7 Mar 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: It is less likely they can be manipulated now than was the case in the past, but it was a bone of contention for many decades in all parts of the country. The system of assessment for student grants must be reformed and I stand by that.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: School Staffing (7 Mar 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: The proposals put forward by the Labour Relations Commission on an extension to the Croke Park agreement, which include a requirement for teachers to provide cover for the first day of certified sick absence, arise from an intensive and difficult set of negotiations between the public services committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the Government. These negotiations took place...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: School Staffing (7 Mar 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: The Deputy referred to this in his question and I have a supplementary note that was provided for me. It states that the position set out by the Deputy in the question is not entirely correct. The question refers to substitution being no longer permitted for teachers on certified sick leave. The position as set out in the Labour Relations Commission proposals is that teachers will be...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: School Staffing (7 Mar 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: That is not my understanding of the situation.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Student Grant Scheme Delays (7 Mar 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: In accordance with normal protocol, it is the function of officials to conduct business with the chief executive officer of the City of Dublin VEC on the operation of Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, and to report to me on developments as appropriate. While I had a meeting with the CEO, my views are communicated to the chief executive officer by my officials through this process. ...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Student Grant Scheme Delays (7 Mar 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: The Deputy's freedom of information request was such that he did not necessarily get the entire picture. The implementation group comprises officials from the Department, the chief executive officer of the CDVEC and senior SUSI personnel, and I get regular reports after they meet. I would never attempt to chair that meeting or project-manage that group myself. However, 13 group meetings...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Student Grant Scheme Delays (7 Mar 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: In addition to the meeting to which the reply to the question refers, I have had numerous telephone conversations with the chief executive officer, Ms Jacinta Stewart, arising from my receipt of reports and my concern over the lack of progress, as I perceived it.