Results 13,441-13,460 of 19,032 for speaker:Ruairi Quinn
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Departmental Staff (7 Mar 2013)
Ruairi Quinn: In May 2011 my Department issued circular 31/2011 which sets out a cascading set of measures for appointment of teachers with effect from September 2011. These measures are stringent and require schools to prioritise unemployed teachers over those in receipt of a pension where possible. It should be remembered that the schools themselves employ teachers. Some 55,666 teachers were employed...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Departmental Staff (7 Mar 2013)
Ruairi Quinn: I do not have a breakdown of those teachers. The reply to a later question gives a breakdown of the distribution of the teachers and I can give it to the Deputy then. We are continuing to press the matter with the schools' boards of management and the unions. There are texting services for getting at short notice relief teachers where there are vacancies. However, in some cases the school...
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Departmental Staff (7 Mar 2013)
Ruairi Quinn: To facilitate the Deputy I will repeat part of the earlier reply. Feedback from schools indicates that the reasons for recruitment of retired teachers include the number and pattern of hours available at school level; the paucity of appropriately qualified and registered teachers who are not retired in certain skill areas, such as special needs; and the unavailability, at short notice, of...
- Other Questions: Schools Guidance Counsellors (7 Mar 2013)
Ruairi Quinn: My Department recognises a number of postgraduate qualifications offered by universities as acceptable for school guidance work. The Higher Education Authority does not allocate funding for specific courses. It is a matter for each university to determine which courses are run and the number of places they wish to offer. As such decisions are usually determined by reference to overall...
- Other Questions: Schools Guidance Counsellors (7 Mar 2013)
Ruairi Quinn: So am I.
- Other Questions: Schools Guidance Counsellors (7 Mar 2013)
Ruairi Quinn: On the Deputy's observation on the lack of figures at this point in the academic year, this is not confined to higher level education. It is also a problem at primary and second level. Our system is partially computerised and partially manual. We are dependent on the individual institutions returning data to us. In my view, this has not been satisfactory. I propose to take another look...
- Other Questions: Schools Guidance Counsellors (7 Mar 2013)
Ruairi Quinn: There are five institutions involved. The figure for last year is 54; for the previous year is 83 and for the year prior to that is 100. Five years ago the figure was 58. As such, there was a spike two years ago, which dropped off long before any changes were made to the budget.
- Other Questions: School Guidelines on Mental Health (7 Mar 2013)
Ruairi Quinn: I have allocated €500,000 to enable implementation of the action plan on bullying, the full detail of which is being worked out, to be progressed this year. This additional expenditure will complement other programmes that focus on assisting teachers and school management in dealing with bullying in primary and post-primary schools. The guidelines for mental health promotion bring...
- Other Questions: School Guidelines on Mental Health (7 Mar 2013)
Ruairi Quinn: No decision has yet been made on the breakdown of the detailed allocation of the moneys.
- Other Questions: School Guidelines on Mental Health (7 Mar 2013)
Ruairi Quinn: I do not agree with the conclusion reached by the Deputy. Given the state of where we are, and what we now know with regard to the whole school environment and the health required for it, the approach must be to make it everybody's concern in the first instance. The Deputy spoke about the guidelines for mental health promotion, and these suggest three states of intervention, namely, a whole...
- Other Questions: School Guidelines on Mental Health (7 Mar 2013)
Ruairi Quinn: It is very big.
- Other Questions: School Guidelines on Mental Health (7 Mar 2013)
Ruairi Quinn: I recognise the very large size of Gorey Community School and a new VEC school is planned to be built there. It has still to come on-stream as the Deputy knows. There are special pressures in Gorey and I recognise this.
- Other Questions: School Staffing (7 Mar 2013)
Ruairi Quinn: The guidelines on mental health promotion and suicide prevention are based on schools taking a co-ordinated whole school approach to preventing and, where necessary, tackling these issues. This involves building and integrating school self-evaluation processes, implementing the SPHE curriculum, developing the whole school guidance plan, adopting the NEPS continuum of support, and building...
- Other Questions: School Staffing (7 Mar 2013)
Ruairi Quinn: First and foremost I do value guidance counsellors. They have not been abolished. Against the background of the necessity to reduce expenditure across all heads of Departments I had a very stark option to meet the targets. One was to disimprove the pupil-teacher ratio across the entire post-primary sector, which would have had knock-on effects in terms of subject choice, and the other was...
- Other Questions: School Staffing (7 Mar 2013)
Ruairi Quinn: I commend the Deputy's ability to defy reality in his pre-budget submissions. The trail of economic management from Fianna Fáil has left us with a mess we are still trying to deal with in real terms.
- Other Questions: Bullying in Schools (7 Mar 2013)
Ruairi Quinn: As the Deputy is probably aware, on 29 January last, Minister Fitzgerald and I published the action plan on bullying which sets out twelve actions to help prevent and tackle bullying in primary and second level schools. I have ring-fenced €500,000 to support implementation of these actions this year.
- Other Questions: Bullying in Schools (7 Mar 2013)
Ruairi Quinn: While I appreciate we are all on the side on this issue, I ask Members to have regard to what progress has been made. The last set of guidelines on bullying in the Department which we built upon and considerably modernised were drawn up in 1993. There was no reference to homophobic bullying whatsoever in those guidelines as it was not part and parcel of the landscape in terms of recognising...
- Other Questions: Bullying in Schools (7 Mar 2013)
Ruairi Quinn: I thank the Deputy.
- Other Questions: Bullying in Schools (7 Mar 2013)
Ruairi Quinn: The Parliamentary Labour Party agreed yesterday in a Private Members' legislative initiative, similar to what the Deputy has brought forward and similar to what Senator Averil Power has brought forward, that it will, I understand, be taken in the Private Members' slot in the Seanad on 12 March. I hope it will progress from there. The legislation needs to be changed fairly soon. It is a...
- Other Questions: Bullying in Schools (7 Mar 2013)
Ruairi Quinn: I expect so.