Results 14,821-14,840 of 17,531 for speaker:Jan O'Sullivan

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teacher Redeployment (21 Jan 2016)

Jan O'Sullivan: The teacher exchange scheme is designed to facilitate primary teachers to temporarily exchange their posts for education purposes. Under the present scheme the minimum period for which an exchange may occur is one year and the maximum is five years. The Teacher Conciliation Council is part of the scheme of Conciliation and Arbitration Scheme for Teachers and was set up to deal with claims...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Funding (21 Jan 2016)

Jan O'Sullivan: I can confirm that the school referred to by the Deputy has submitted an application to my Department for capital funding for additional school accommodation. My Department wrote to the Patron Body in relation to the application and a response is awaited. The matter will be given further consideration when this information is received.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (21 Jan 2016)

Jan O'Sullivan: I wish to advise you that it is not the role of my Department to allocate resource teaching hours or SNA support to schools to support children with special educational needs. As the Deputy is aware, the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is an independent statutory agency with responsibility for determining the appropriate staffing levels in relation to the support of pupils...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Staffing (21 Jan 2016)

Jan O'Sullivan: The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs) for allocating Special Needs Assistant (SNA) support for each school annually taking into account the assessed care needs of children qualifying for SNA support enrolled in the school. Where children have significant care needs whereby they may need...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (21 Jan 2016)

Jan O'Sullivan: As the Deputy is aware, the project for the school referred to, is included in the 6 Year Construction Programme that I announced on 17 November last. The timeline for when work is expected to proceed is outlined in the announcement. Each project is listed in the year when the commencement of construction works is anticipated. In the case of the school referred to, it is listed to proceed...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (21 Jan 2016)

Jan O'Sullivan: I wish to advise the Deputy that differing teacher allocation ratios are applied under the General Allocation Model (GAM) in relation to boys, girls and mixed schools in order to account for differentials of prevalence of learning difficulty between boys and girls. The objective of this differentiation is to ensure that resources provided to schools to support children who have additional...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (21 Jan 2016)

Jan O'Sullivan: As the Deputy is aware, the project for the school referred to, is included in the 6 Year Construction Programme that I announced on 17 November last, and is listed to proceed to tender and construction in the period 2019-21. My Department will be in contact with the school authorities in the near future regarding the progression of the school project.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teachers' Remuneration (21 Jan 2016)

Jan O'Sullivan: In the 2011/12 school year, 13,852 post primary teachers (excluding ETB teachers) were being paid Supervision and Substitution allowance on a pensionable basis. The amount paid was €17.6 million. Teachers who retire during the "grace period" (recently extended by order made by the Minister for Public Expenditure under the FEMPI legislation) have their superannuation benefits...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Placement (21 Jan 2016)

Jan O'Sullivan: I wish to advise the Deputy that it is the responsibility of the managerial authorities of all schools to implement an enrolment policy in accordance with the Education Act, 1998. The enrolment policy must be non-discriminatory and must be applied fairly in respect of all applicants. My Department's main responsibility is to ensure that schools in an area can, between them, cater for all...

Technological Universities Bill 2015: Order for Report Stage (26 Jan 2016)

Jan O'Sullivan: I move: "That Report Stage be taken now."

Technological Universities Bill 2015: Report Stage (26 Jan 2016)

Jan O'Sullivan: I thank Deputy O'Brien for his comments. My officials did brief Opposition members. I met some members of the Teachers' Union of Ireland, TUI, who expressed concerns to me. We had met them before that also. I have a number of amendments tabled that I hope address some of the issues raised by the two Opposition Deputies here in the Chamber, Deputies Jonathan O'Brien and Maureen O'Sullivan....

Technological Universities Bill 2015: Report Stage (26 Jan 2016)

Jan O'Sullivan: I will address the various points raised by Deputies. With regard to the issue of time, the Second Stage debate was not guillotined and we had a long and good debate on Committee Stage. We also left sufficient time between Committee Stage and Report Stage to allow a significant number of amendments to be submitted by Opposition Deputies and a smaller number to be submitted by me in response...

Technological Universities Bill 2015: Report Stage (26 Jan 2016)

Jan O'Sullivan: I will try to address some of the issues raised. I refer to the general point on access. On the concern that the number of students who currently attend institutes of technologies in the region might decline or that students would be less encouraged to do so, I wish to categorically state that is not the intention of the Bill. In fact, the Department is planning for consistent increases...

Technological Universities Bill 2015: Report Stage (26 Jan 2016)

Jan O'Sullivan: My amendment No. 8 is grouped with Deputy O'Brien's. Can I speak to my amendment?

Technological Universities Bill 2015: Report Stage (26 Jan 2016)

Jan O'Sullivan: Deputy O'Brien raised this issue during discussion on Committee Stage, so I considered what he had said and following further discussion I also met the student union representatives. I propose amendment No. 8, which will have the effect of deleting "or appointed" from the definition of student set out in section 2, in line with Deputy O'Brien's proposed amendment. I think we are in...

Technological Universities Bill 2015: Report Stage (26 Jan 2016)

Jan O'Sullivan: I move amendment No. 8:In page 12, line 5, to delete “or appointed”.

Technological Universities Bill 2015: Report Stage (26 Jan 2016)

Jan O'Sullivan: As discussed on Committee Stage, Deputy O'Brien's amendments Nos. 9, 38, 84, 87, 98 and 109 all relate either to the definition of trade union or use of the term "staff association". In all such cases, the standard wording used can be found in a wide range of similar legislation. Recent examples include the County Enterprise Boards (Dissolution) Act 2014, the Industrial Development...

Technological Universities Bill 2015: Report Stage (26 Jan 2016)

Jan O'Sullivan: The latter is included. Certainly, my interpretation is that it is already catered for.

Technological Universities Bill 2015: Report Stage (26 Jan 2016)

Jan O'Sullivan: In the section of the Bill that talks about the rights of students unions, which we discussed earlier on. With regard to the use of the term "staff association," this legislation is for the future, and even if there are not any staff associations now, we do not want to preclude them, if there were any in the future, from being covered under the Bill. As I stated, the term is used in a...

Technological Universities Bill 2015: Report Stage (26 Jan 2016)

Jan O'Sullivan: Section 3 provides that an order of the Minister to merge institutes of technology under section 18, to establish a technological university under section 46 or to incorporate an institute of technology into a technological university under section 53 shall require a positive resolution of each House of the Oireachtas before it can be made by the Minister. Because those sections give the...