Results 16,581-16,600 of 19,032 for speaker:Ruairi Quinn

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: State Examinations Issues (18 Dec 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: State Examinations Commission has statutory responsibility for operational matters relating to the certificate examinations. The State Examinations Commission operates a scheme of Reasonable Accommodations in the Certificate examinations. Applications for such accommodations are submitted by schools on behalf of their students. Full details of the scheme are available for downloading from...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Home Tuition Scheme Eligibility (18 Dec 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I can confirm to the Deputy that there are two separate cases where the combined allocation of home tuition initially approved by my Department was appealed resulting in increased allocations. As set out in the Home Tuition Circular, allocations to siblings are reflective of the school grouping principle. The pupil teacher ratio in school settings can result in one teacher being allocated...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Properties (18 Dec 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: In 2010 my Department carried out an examination of the long term use of the building referred to by the Deputy and determined that it would not continue with the operation of the facility. There are no plans at the moment to re-open the facility. My Department will make contact with the school authorities to discuss the issues raised.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Eligibility (18 Dec 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: The decision on eligibility for a student grant is a matter in the first instance for the awarding authority. The Deputy will appreciate that in the absence of all of the relevant details that would be contained in an individual's application in relation to nationality, residency, previous academic attainment and means, it would not be possible for me to say whether or not a student would...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Book Rental Scheme (18 Dec 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: The Deputy will be aware from Budget 2014 that additional funding has been provided which will involve an investment of €15m to support the establishment of book rental schemes in primary schools that do not currently operate them. The Department will provide €5m in seed capital per annum over a three year period to such schools. I want to achieve a position where every...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Ministerial Advisers Remuneration (18 Dec 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: The information requested by the Deputy is contained in the following tabular statement. Mr. John Walshe and Ms. Deirdre Grant are paid within the approved Principal Officers' payscale as provided for in the guidelines for such appointments as published by the Department of Finance on the 24th, March 2011. As their income was greater than the minimum of the PO payscale prior to their...

Business of Dáil (19 Dec 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: Hear, hear.

Leaders' Questions (19 Dec 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: First, I thank the Deputy for his expressions of seasonal goodwill which my colleagues and I on the Government benches also extend to the Deputy and other Deputies and parties represented in the House. The Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly, has a very difficult job to do and he has to be given time to do it. It is not easy. One of the issues that has been in the newspapers is the...

Leaders' Questions (19 Dec 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: -----the Deputy, as his party's spokeperson on health, will have ample time to go through the details with him, having regard to the fact that it was his party leader who established the HSE in the first place.

Leaders' Questions (19 Dec 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: No, as I said, the Minister for Health has probably got the most difficult job in the country, certainly in the Cabinet, in managing one of the largest spending Departments, with which the Deputy is familiar, one which, in many respects, is at the mercy of demand-led services which, in some cases, are very hard to predict. I have every confidence in the Minister that he will meet the targets...

Leaders' Questions (19 Dec 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I thank the Deputy for the expression of goodwill extended to me and my colleagues and, in particular, his recognition of colleagues who are not well. He mentioned a Deputy and a Senator and perhaps there are others. It is a sentiment I completely support and I thank him for raising it. I share the Deputy's concern, as does the Labour Party, about what has happened to the public housing...

Leaders' Questions (19 Dec 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I thank the Deputy for raising this matter and I share his concern. We are grappling with one thing many Administrations tried to do and found very difficult, to transfer to local authorities from the Department of Social Protection responsibility for the housing supplement so that one body deals with the area. Many have argued for it, including the body the Deputy cited. I will bring to...

Leaders' Questions (19 Dec 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I agree with the Deputy in that we should extend our best wishes and appreciation to all members of the staff for the way in which this House runs so efficiently. With regard to the Deputy's first question, my answer is "Yes", and I accept that we have a problem. We have known that from the very beginning and since we came into government. It was one of the many problems we inherited from...

Leaders' Questions (19 Dec 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: Fianna Fáil took 14 years to make a mess of the issue so I would not rush if I were the Deputy.

Leaders' Questions (19 Dec 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: In respect to the Deputy's second question, I accept that thousands of families are currently living in fear, and people in my constituency are struggling with the issue. As there has been a de facto moratorium on house building over the past number of years, there has been a significant increase in house rents, as Deputy Ó Caoláin noted. That has happened across the country and...

Leaders' Questions (19 Dec 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: Everybody in this House shares the concern which the Deputy has raised on a number of occasions. This Government has put in place a most comprehensive programme of action to assist householders struggling to pay their mortgages-----

Leaders' Questions (19 Dec 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I am trying to reply to the Deputy's question.

Leaders' Questions (19 Dec 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: We have rebalanced the rights of borrowers and lenders under the biggest shake-up of personal insolvency law in the century. We have given those who bought their first homes during the bubble significant increases in mortgage interest relief. That is not the end of what we are trying to do. I accept the concerns which have been expressed and although the figures are hard to calculate, they...

Leaders' Questions (19 Dec 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: Whatever way it is to be done, nobody in the House wants to see people put out on the street because they cannot repay amounts.

Leaders' Questions (19 Dec 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: Nobody wants that.