Results 15,301-15,320 of 19,032 for speaker:Ruairi Quinn

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: 2014 Pre-Budget Submission: Department of Education and Skills (17 Jul 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: As Deputies Griffin and McConalogue know from their constituencies, there may be locations at which young teachers are not readily available to take up posts, particularly for short-term vacancies. There must be a certain degree of flexibility, but there is a distinction between a short-term vacancy and, for example, a maternity leave vacancy, which is typical of longer term vacancies. We...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: 2014 Pre-Budget Submission: Department of Education and Skills (17 Jul 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I do not know, but I will examine it. As there could be complications, I do not want to give a snap answer.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: 2014 Pre-Budget Submission: Department of Education and Skills (17 Jul 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: If needs be, I will revert to the Deputy with clarification, but I am informed that the €7 million refers to the National Council for Special Education, NCSE's assessment of the additional demand between February and now, which it expects will impact on the start of the academic year.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: 2014 Pre-Budget Submission: Department of Education and Skills (17 Jul 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: Yes. We do not know what it is yet.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: 2014 Pre-Budget Submission: Department of Education and Skills (17 Jul 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: Yes. We have budgeted for that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: 2014 Pre-Budget Submission: Department of Education and Skills (17 Jul 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: 2014 Pre-Budget Submission: Department of Education and Skills (17 Jul 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: From the point of view of accessing assets for the purpose of sending someone to college, a fixed asset like a piece of machinery or property could only be used for educational purposes if it was sold. That seems to be a contradiction. This is my personal opinion and I am not a professional economist or accountant, but I am making a distinction of capital above and beyond what would be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: 2014 Pre-Budget Submission: Department of Education and Skills (17 Jul 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: The history to this goes back a long time and is probably no longer true. I have been told clearly by the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, ICMSA, and the IFA that accountancy standards for farm income and small businesses are different from what they were ten or 15 years ago. It was an urban or rural myth that PAYE creamery workers across the country could not get grants for their...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: 2014 Pre-Budget Submission: Department of Education and Skills (17 Jul 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: 2014 Pre-Budget Submission: Department of Education and Skills (17 Jul 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: That was never the intention.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: 2014 Pre-Budget Submission: Department of Education and Skills (17 Jul 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: It would be unwise for me to go any further in this discussion, as the debate has not been concluded internally. It would be counterproductive and contradictory to force a business to close in order to send children to college. On what would those people live? It is a question of making a distinction between reserves of cash above and beyond what is necessary to run a business over the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: 2014 Pre-Budget Submission: Department of Education and Skills (17 Jul 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I have always recognised it. It may be a useful topic for the committee to explore.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: 2014 Pre-Budget Submission: Department of Education and Skills (17 Jul 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: For non-fee paying post-primary schools, the pupil-teacher ratio is 19:1. In the 55 fee paying schools of the 723 post-primary schools in question, the ratio is 23:1. This figure increased from 21:1 last year. This change has a saving of approximately €2 in the first year and €6 in a full year. I am sorry - €2 million and €6 million, not €2 and €6.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: 2014 Pre-Budget Submission: Department of Education and Skills (17 Jul 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: No, but we have not started the budgetary exercise yet. All I know is that the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, the Department and I must find savings in the order of €44 million, possibly more. A list of interventions, including the pupil-teacher ratio, can be made to produce money. Our task is to quantify the savings so that we can be accurate in assessing what we will get. This...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: 2014 Pre-Budget Submission: Department of Education and Skills (17 Jul 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I have regarded the situation in that way so far. We have not changed the ratio at primary or second level because it is part and parcel of front-line services. Frankly, what we aspire to do and what we must do are two different matters. The history of this should be understood.It dates back to 1907 with the Ne Temere decree, which the Vatican imposed on this country but not on Germany,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: 2014 Pre-Budget Submission: Department of Education and Skills (17 Jul 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I know. Recently, I met parents in Limerick from Munster’s farming community who believed that their ability to have their children reared in the tradition to which I have referred was being made impossible by virtue of changes to the pupil-teacher ratio.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: 2014 Pre-Budget Submission: Department of Education and Skills (17 Jul 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: Dún Laoghaire.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: 2014 Pre-Budget Submission: Department of Education and Skills (17 Jul 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: The estimate – I must stress that it is only an estimate – from a few years ago when this idea was first mooted was €2 million to €3 million in savings per year during the first couple of years, after which time we would have a clearer picture. To be honest, that estimate comes with a health warning.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: 2014 Pre-Budget Submission: Department of Education and Skills (17 Jul 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: No.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: 2014 Pre-Budget Submission: Department of Education and Skills (17 Jul 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: The funding agency for third level is the Higher Education Authority. The Department makes the money available indirectly. The Higher Education Authority allocates the funding. There are 39 different institutions in receipt of funding, 14 institutes of technology, seven universities and basically each institution will be spoken to by the HEA and would agree the level of reduction. I do...