Results 14,301-14,320 of 20,682 for speaker:Mary Hanafin

Sexual Discrimination. (9 Apr 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I am aware that the teacher unions have expressed concern about discrimination against teachers on the basis of sexual orientation. They made particular mention of the provisions of the Employment Equality Act 1998 where a denominational school may not be regarded as discriminating against a person where action is taken to preserve the religious ethos of the school. These provisions,...

Sexual Discrimination. (9 Apr 2008)

Mary Hanafin: Obviously any form of homophobic bullying or bullying in the workplace should not be tolerated by the schools themselves or by any institution. There is legislation to protect people to whom this happens and it should be invoked. The general secretary of the Catholic Primary School Management Association, Monsignor Dan O'Connor, is on record as saying that sexual orientation is only an...

Sexual Discrimination. (9 Apr 2008)

Mary Hanafin: That speaks for itself. I can understand that people in that situation may feel a sense of fear, but the problem has not occurred to the extent that somebody has had to take a case. I hope we will never see this. The legislation does allow for schools to protect their ethos, which is a provision that exists in a number of countries. It does not apply only to schools but also to hospitals...

Sexual Discrimination. (9 Apr 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I want to ensure there is no discrimination and no bullying, within the context of the legislation, based on sexual orientation. It is encouraging for teachers to know that none of them has been forced to take a case. A teacher would only take a case if there was a feeling that he or she had been strongly discriminated against. I hope that will encourage other teachers to be more...

School Enrolments. (9 Apr 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I have spoken on a number of occasions about the responsibility of all schools to welcome and include children of every background and need. The audit of school enrolment policies conducted at my request considered the enrolment of Traveller children, newcomers and children with special educational needs in almost 2,000 schools at primary and post-primary level. The audit also considered...

School Enrolments. (9 Apr 2008)

Mary Hanafin: I do not intend to publish the individual findings about schools for two reasons. First, the results are simply figures and do not give any background information. For example, did parents actually apply to a certain school? If a particular school in an area has a reputation for being good for children with special needs, parents may automatically enrol their children there. We do not...

School Enrolments. (9 Apr 2008)

Mary Hanafin: Once it becomes available to the partners it will then be available publicly if people want it. I do not want it to be used to formulate a league table on the basis of schools that accept many pupils with special needs and those that do not.

School Enrolments. (9 Apr 2008)

Mary Hanafin: It is too sensitive an issue. In addition, it is something that must be dealt with at a local rather than a national level. People had the impression that there was a whole sector of schools that did not take particular children, but this is not evident from the audit. Significantly, there does not seem to be any problem at primary level. For the most part, children go to their local...

School Enrolments. (9 Apr 2008)

Mary Hanafin: Generally, if we consider three or four schools within a town, it is far more telling. It will tell us that people from a disadvantaged area are going to one school, newcomers are going to another, and children with special needs are going somewhere else. Or, indeed, all three might be going to one of the schools.

School Enrolments. (9 Apr 2008)

Mary Hanafin: First of all, I did not say the schools had specific enrolment policies. What I said was that if one looks at figures for individual schools in a specific area, one can see where there has been a gravitation of special needs pupils towards them. That might mean that the parents of those children, recognising that a school is particularly good or has got a name of being good for these...

School Enrolments. (9 Apr 2008)

Mary Hanafin: No. It is important to work through it with people because we need a more localised dynamic. If we had principals and schools talking and working more with each other on a localised region then one could solve the matter on a community level. I am not going to introduce financial sanctions against schools. We cannot stand up here one minute saying "Give the schools more money", and then...

School Enrolments. (9 Apr 2008)

Mary Hanafin: No, but nobody has said that they have a selective enrolment policy.

School Enrolments. (9 Apr 2008)

Mary Hanafin: We are saying that, looking at the figures, people might have gravitated towards it. We must see how we can have that localised dynamic. Can we perhaps have more peer monitoring? I want to answer the Deputy's question on the numbers. There must also be information for parents on their rights because so many parents do not appeal or do not know they can do so. That is important. There...

School Enrolments. (9 Apr 2008)

Mary Hanafin: The survey was of 1,995 schools, of which 1,572 were primary and 426 post-primary. That is more than half the primary schools and two-thirds of post-primary ones.

School Enrolments. (9 Apr 2008)

Mary Hanafin: Hold on. There are 750 post-primary schools, of which 426 — that is more than half of them — were audited. We took ten different counties and 17 local authority areas.

School Enrolments. (9 Apr 2008)

Mary Hanafin: We know that there is not a problem in the primary schools because we——

School Enrolments. (9 Apr 2008)

Mary Hanafin: So that we could show that there was not.

School Enrolments. (9 Apr 2008)

Mary Hanafin: It would have defeated the whole argument if we had only audited schools where we thought there was a problem. We needed to get a picture in an individual area. We got it for the individual areas and also got it for the national area.

Schools Building Projects. (9 Apr 2008)

Mary Hanafin: My Department has received numerous representations from concerned parties regarding the provision of a new community school in Ballinamore, County Leitrim. The representations were initially concerned with the acquisition of a site and more recently concentrated on the commencement of architectural planning for the new school building. My Department recognises the need for a new community...

Schools Building Projects. (9 Apr 2008)

Mary Hanafin: Even I cannot build a school in the next few weeks.