Results 15,321-15,340 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: Thank you Deputy. The previous Government asked Dr. Colin Hunt to head up a national review committee on a strategy for higher education and it published its report in January 2011. The report was finished in August but it got delayed for a variety of reasons. I was in opposition at the time but I welcomed the report. It was a very useful piece of work and while I did not necessarily...

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

Ruairi Quinn: I will come back to that issue, but will respond first to the point made by Deputy Griffin. International university rankings are like tourist guides. They highlight different aspects of universities. The United States have ranked their universities for a long time. The rankings are like league tables and can be manipulated according to what one wants to try to emphasise. For example,...

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

Ruairi Quinn: The Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, has responsibility for school transport so I will ask him to try to respond to that question.

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

Ruairi Quinn: There were 1,694 prefabricated units being rented in primary and post-primary schools at the end of March 2011 at a cost of €23.2 million. This compares with 1,490 units being rented at the end of March 2012 at a cost of €19 million and 1,273 being rented at the end of March this year at a cost of €17 million. We have been systematically trying to reduce it. The Deputy...

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

Ruairi Quinn: That is the intention. I should stress that because we have a rapidly growing population we will always need temporary accommodation and prefabs are a response to that need but they should not become a permanent solution to a temporary problem. I was very harsh on Ministers of the time about the prefab programme but part of the problem in the years of the construction boom was that many...

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

Ruairi Quinn: I was presented with a report that will be published later today which, hot off the press, shows that the figure for 2012 to 2013, the academic year that has just ended, was 526,426 in primary school, an increase of 9,966, and in the post-primary sector the figure was 327,320, an increase of 4,790. In round figures, the top figure in 2016 to 2017 - the first academic year after the next...

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

Ruairi Quinn: The figure will be an extra 8,000 at post-primary level in 2014 to 2015. In 2014 to 2015 the primary school population will be 552,019, another increase of almost 13,000. The total school-going population in 2016 to 2017 does not level off until about 2020 to 2023. This total figure will be of the order of 900,000. We have 90,000 teachers at the moment. The population of the country is...

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

Ruairi Quinn: In the early to middle of the next decade, in 2023 or 2024.

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

Ruairi Quinn: Yes. I will provide the committee with the statistics that were brought to my attention today by the Department's statistical unit. That information is now on the departmental website.

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

Ruairi Quinn: We would hope to sanction them as quickly as possible. We do not receive many applications for amalgamations but we would welcome amalgamations, particularly in cases where the school communities come together. We will expedite and facilitate amalgamations. I ask the Deputy to inform me of any particular cases of amalgamations which seem to be moving slowly.

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

Ruairi Quinn: We do not have that precise information to hand but I will provide it for the Deputy.

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

Ruairi Quinn: We are at a very early stage of the budgetary process. The budget will be announced in October and we will have a much clearer picture in six or seven weeks when the schools reopen. We will then be dealing with concrete numbers rather than estimates. My Department will have discussions with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in September and we will have a much firmer base of...

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

Ruairi Quinn: It is a collective Cabinet process. In the first instance, the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, and I will work on the budget process along with the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Sherlock, who is not as involved in the Department as is Deputy Cannon who has devolved responsibility for the school transport programme. We have reached a political decision. In the past not every...

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

Ruairi Quinn: I am informed that document was produced in September 2011.

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

Ruairi Quinn: The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, informs me that if the public procurement process identifies a price level for a standard ream of photocopy paper, for example, and a school has a traditional supplier of stationery and the unit price is €10, if the local supplier can provide it at that price then the school is entitled to purchase at that price. It has...

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

Ruairi Quinn: Yes. We are not directing the schools as to from whom they should buy their supplies. If the Deputy knows of instances which are not in accordance I ask him to let us know. We are advising them of the price that should be paid for a ream of paper, for example.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Public Procurement Regulations (18 Jul 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: The Momentum fund is administered under normal procurement rules. There was a 1st stage process to list potential providers on a panel. This entailed establishing that they were currently trading as a training business, in good standing, with sufficient policies and procedures to deliver Momentum projects. Businesses also had to be registered as recognised by, or aligned to, an awarding body....

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: An Comhairle Um Oideachas Gaeltachta agus Gaelscolaíochta (18 Jul 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: Tá mo chinneadh polasaí déanta agam COGG agus an CNCM a chomhshuí. Chuir mé an Chomh-aireacht ar an eolas faoi seo agus phléigh mé go hiomlán leo é an tSamhain seo caite. Táim cinnte gur fearr a n-éascófar le feidhmiú mholtaí na straitéise 20 Bliain don Ghaeilge 2010 - 2030, de bharr iad a bheith comhshuite, agus, ina...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Private Schools (18 Jul 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I propose to take Questions Nos. 208 and 249 together. The Government has protected frontline services in schools to the greatest extent possible in the recent budget and there will no reduction in teacher numbers in primary schools and in free second level schools for the 2013/14 school year as a result of the budget. The DEIS scheme for disadvantaged schools is also fully protected with...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (18 Jul 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: A major school building project for the school referred to by the Deputy is at an advanced stage of architectural planning. The project was authorised to commence Stage 2b - Detailed Design in December of 2012. This stage involves securing planning permission, fire certificate and disability access certificate and the completion of tender documents. Due to competing demands on my...