Results 14,361-14,380 of 17,531 for speaker:Jan O'Sullivan

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: School Admissions (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The Bill was published just before the summer, in April. I would like to have had time in the Dáil and Seanad to bring it through the Houses of the Oireachtas. I am not kicking the Bill to touch; if it can still be done, I will do it, but I am being realistic in terms of the Oireachtas calendar, in so far as we only have one more sitting week this year in the Dáil. We will only...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: School Admissions (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: There will be an admissions Bill. There is no doubt about that. It will go through the Oireachtas after the election because it has to; it is something that will be addressed. My predecessor, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, brought the Bill a long way and I brought it to the point of being published. I reject the claim that we have not been working on reform. A significant amount of reform was...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: School Patronage (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The programme for Government gives a commitment to move towards a more pluralist system of patronage for our schools. In this context, the Government established a Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector. The forum advised on how the education system can provide a sufficiently diverse number and range of primary schools catering for all religions and none and on the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: School Patronage (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The main purpose of the meetings is to find out the obstacles hindering divestment. There is a willingness in this respect at a macro level. Having listened to what Archbishop Martin said again this week, there is certainly such a willingness in the archdiocese of Dublin. Also, from my meetings with the people I have met so far, there is a willingness at that macro level. What I am being...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: School Patronage (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: I do not disagree that we need to address the Equal Status Act and that it needs to be amended. We are examining in what way it could be amended to protect, for example, minority religions in terms of wanting to have their particular schools protected. If one is, for example, a member of the Jewish faith, a member of the Church of Ireland or a Muslim for that matter, if a school has to take...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Teachers' Remuneration (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: Since the beginning of the financial crisis, there has been a need to enact a number of measures to reduce public expenditure. These measures were implemented at a time of very difficult financial and budgetary circumstances for the State. Since first entering Government, we have been committed to achieving such reductions through negotiation. The Haddington Road agreement, to which...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Teachers' Remuneration (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The pay agreements are part of the way in which these things function in Ireland. The Haddington Road agreement was signed up to by all the teaching unions. The Lansdowne Road agreement was signed up to by the INTO although the other two unions have issues with it. As I said in my opening remarks, the emphasis in the Lansdowne Road agreement is on restoring salaries to lower paid workers...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Teachers' Remuneration (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: I have no doubt that the INTO and the other teaching unions will represent their members very effectively in these kinds of negotiations, as they always do. We do have negotiations that are agreed and are being implemented by the Government. There was a time when percentage increases always happened, as a result of which we had very big gaps between the better-paid and lower-paid people....

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Special Educational Needs Staffing (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: The National Council for Special Education, NCSE, published advice in 2013 which identified that the current model for allocating resource teachers to schools is potentially inequitable and recommended the development of a new allocation model. A new model based on the profiled needs of each school rather than on the diagnosed disability of individual children has been developed. This new...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Special Educational Needs Staffing (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: There was no reduction in the resource hours given to the schools. There were extra supporting materials for the schools and the testing of the pupil planning process and the outcome of reporting. There were not unlimited resources. They have received their resource allocation for 2015-2016 and schools that might gain under the new model presumably would have got extra resources. This...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Special Educational Needs Staffing (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: There would have to be some limit on resources. We could not give an unlimited number of resource hours to a school, whether in a pilot or a new model. My understanding is that a school would not have reduced resources but there would not be unlimited resources. If I can clarify that further at a later stage for the Deputy, I will do so. There will be enough resources to ensure the new...

Other Questions: School Accommodation (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: As the Deputy will be aware, I announced in November last the need for the establishment of four new primary schools and nine post-primary schools to cater for increased demographics across a number of locations in 2017 and 2018. The demographic projections for the Wexford town area do not indicate that a new post primary school is required. As part of the Department's school capital...

Other Questions: School Accommodation (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: As I stated at the outset, building projects have been approved for Loreto secondary school and Wexford CBS, which will provide increased capacity. As a result of the information that came to us last week through that meeting attended by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, my Department is making contact with each post-primary school to request details of their...

Other Questions: School Accommodation (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: He gave us a full picture.

Other Questions: School Accommodation (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: Schools were being built in the past five years.

Other Questions: School Accommodation (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: That is not right.

Other Questions: School Accommodation (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: We did a lot. We had the marriage equality referendum, for example.

Other Questions: School Accommodation (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: Much work was done in the school building area over the past five years, despite the state of the economy. There should be fair credit given to my predecessor, Deputy Quinn, and the Government for ensuring that we did not leave children without school places and that we made projections and built schools. I am using the figures that we have for the Wexford area but, by all means, the Deputy...

Other Questions: School Accommodation (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: As I advised the Deputy earlier, on 17 November I announced that four primary schools and nine post-primary schools will open in 2017 and 2018 as a result of the outcome of the latest demographic exercises conducted by my Department. My officials use a geographical information system to identify where the pressure for additional school places will arise. The system uses data from the...

Other Questions: School Accommodation (9 Dec 2015)

Jan O'Sullivan: In general, the percentage of schools built through PPPs is very low but we can get the Deputy the specific information for Wexford. These are generally done in bundles and the projects are put out to tender. It is a tendering process like any other, so the information is available. We managed to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio in the most recent budget. We have very large classes and...