Results 14,601-14,620 of 19,032 for speaker:Ruairi Quinn

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: The school building project referred to by the Deputy is at an advanced stage of architectural planning. The project has been authorised to proceed to Stage 2(b) - Detailed Design which involves securing planning permission, fire certificate and disability access certificate and the completion of tender documents. When the relevant statutory approvals have been obtained and stage 2b...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: The Deputy will be aware that the Five Year Construction Plan, that I announced on 9 March 2012, outlines the major school projects that will commence construction over the duration of the Plan. The primary aim at the core of the Plan is focussed on meeting demographic demands to ensure that every child will have access to a physical school place and that our school system is in a position...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Expenditure (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I am pleased to inform the Deputy that the school building project referred to was included in the €50 million investment in new school building projects recently announced as part of the Government's "Investing in Infrastructure & Jobs" Package. The project is at an advanced stage of architectural planning. Officials from the School Building Unit of my Department will shortly...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Redundancy Payments (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: An application for compensation for loss of hours from the person referred to by the Deputy was received by my Department on 6th December 2012. Applications are processed in date order of receipt and every effort is being made to process these applications as quickly as possible. It is expected that the person referred to by the Deputy will receive payment in August 2013.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: As requested, I will keep this opening statement short. The net voted sum proposed by the Department for 2013 is €7,926.9 million, made up of current expenditure of €7,514.4 million and capital expenditure of €412.5 million. The Department has supplied briefing material on the 2013 Estimate, which members will have received. The document is in a new format and seeks to...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: We are working with a format that is slightly different to that which previously obtained. If the Deputies on the other side of the table feel somewhat confused, I assure them that they are not alone. We want to co-operate with them and if there are queries which we are not in a position to answer today, we will reply to them in writing at a later date. On Deputy McConalogue's question...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: The full amount of the savings expected for 2014 in this regard is €11.5 million. We have no reason to believe that these will not be achieved. As the Deputy quite rightly pointed out, some of the schools lodged appeals. The pupil-teacher ratio is based on the number of children who are in the system, which, depending on the number of applications for places, can vary from year to year.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: It is a gross saving. This is because the vast majority of those teachers are permanent and would be redeployed.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: We could try to obtain that for the Deputy. However, given that the population is increasing, extra teachers will be needed. This means that the teachers in question will be redeployed. It also means that newly-qualified teachers would otherwise be obliged to wait until the former are redeployed before taking up employment. I will come back to the Deputy on how redeployment actually...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: There are two possible explanations. The first of these is that the school involved may have appealed.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I have a note with me which it might be helpful to deliver to the committee. It should be made clear that not all of the saving options, of which there were 83, identified in the comprehensive expenditure report, or CER, were agreed to be implemented. The CER submitted by the Department in September 2011 contained a very large number of saving options across the education area. The options...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I thank the Deputy for his comments. I received the NCSE's report in the middle of May. Deputy Cannon, the officials in the Department and I are looking at the 28 recommendations the NCSE proposed. I have not yet received from within the Department a recommended response. The NSCE has proposed changes in the way resources are allocated to ensure that each student with special educational...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I will give a brief reply and come back to the Deputy in writing if required. The increase from €8.152 billion to €8.453 billion is an increase in gross expenditure generated by the increase in population. We still have to get the savings that are set out below that.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I apologise that I cannot provide the figures as we are a little bit over halfway through. We will be spending more in absolute terms because of the demographic increase but we must stay within a certain current account budget constraint. We must find savings and that is the exercise we will do between now and budget day in October. We will write back to all committee members in this respect.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: Is this the value for money review on small schools initiated by the previous Government?

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: We know who the parents are, so we will be looking for some maintenance payments. I do not want to anticipate what the Cabinet will decide but it is not a question of instant savings from the point of view of the Department. It is a question of whether we are getting value for the money being spent. That is the principle behind it and it is an interdepartmental process set out by the old...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I thank the Deputy for the question and the manner in which it was raised. On the question of whether we are looking at changing the basis for capitation grants, the short answer is that we are not, but I can see why it might warrant being examined. One size fits all is the approach to primary schools, if that is what we are talking about.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: There is a recognition that there are basic operational costs, for which capitation grants are presumed to provide. These include general electricity, water and other things. The minimum size of the school for the purpose of the capitation grant is 60 pupils in notional terms. From memory, there are some 25 schools with 19 schools pupils and the capitation grant they receive is the same as...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: Across all sectors of the public service, the Government is trying to systematically reduce costs by combining the purchasing power of schools to jointly procure services such as electricity through the extra volume that can be brought to the market. Some school boards of management have traditionally had a local supplier in the area and want to maintain and support local business. If, for...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I will try to get an answer to the questions regarding the balance of teacher education and the costs there. Rainwater harvesting systems were first introduced for major school building projects in 2008. Since then, all major school building projects, where site conditions and circumstances allow and where economically viable to do so, can incorporate a rainwater harvesting system into...