Results 17,861-17,880 of 19,032 for speaker:Ruairi Quinn
- Other Questions: Special Educational Needs Services Provision (9 Apr 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: I recently announced that an additional 390 special needs assistant, SNA, posts had been made available to the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, to allocate to schools to the end of 2014, bringing the total number of SNAs available to 10,965. An additional 480 resource teaching posts have also been made available for the current school year, bringing to over 10,700 the number of...
- Other Questions: Special Educational Needs Services Provision (9 Apr 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: I thank the Deputy for his supplementary question. If he wishes to send me the details, I will examine the specific case. The allocation of resources is based on an assessment conducted by a special educational needs organiser or, in some cases, depends on private arrangements made by parents. I believe that is what the Deputy is referring to.
- Other Questions: Special Educational Needs Services Provision (9 Apr 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: I will consider the Deputy's suggestion and discuss it with the Ministers for Health and Children and Youth Affairs.
- Other Questions: School Curriculum (9 Apr 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: Relationships and sexuality education, RSE, is one component of social, personal and health education, SPHE, in the existing junior cycle. As part of the new junior cycle student awards, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA, is finalising its specification for a new short course in SPHE. The development of the specification, including consultations and reviews of...
- Other Questions: School Curriculum (9 Apr 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: I am aware of those reports. These concerns have also been raised by a number of people in my party and other parties in the House. I welcome this question. Notwithstanding the independence and ethos of each school, I have been informed about the invitations to external visitors and agencies that are issued by such schools. According to my note, all programmes and events delivered by...
- Other Questions: School Curriculum (9 Apr 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: I thank the Deputy for his concern and his comments, which I share. I propose to ask the Department to raise this matter in its regular meetings with the joint management bodies. Those are the groups responsible in post-primary schools, but we can also do it with the Catholic Primary School Managers Association or CPSMA.
- Other Questions: Special Educational Needs Services Provision (9 Apr 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: Special schools are classified as primary national schools and intended to cater for children with special educational needs from the age of 4 years to 18. The Health Service Executive then assumes direct responsibility for young adults with special needs who are over 18 years. Where special schools apply to my Department to retain pupils who, prior to reaching 18 years, had embarked on...
- Other Questions: Special Educational Needs Services Provision (9 Apr 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: That is the inference from the reply.
- Other Questions: Special Educational Needs Services Provision (9 Apr 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: The Deputy is referring to a specific case. I would be more than happy to discuss it with him on a one to one basis. Alternatively, if he forwards the details to me, I will obtain for him bespoke advice on the position on this matter. My initial reply was a general policy response, which shows that there is some flexibility in the context of the time when people reach the age of 18 years....
- Other Questions: Special Educational Needs Services Provision (9 Apr 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: Not immediately. I will make inquiries and return to the Deputy on it. If he forwards all of the relevant details to me, I will obtain for him a proper response.
- Other Questions: Psychological Assessments (9 Apr 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: The Department's National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, in line with best international practice, works through a consultative model of service and a continuum-based assessment and intervention process. This means that each school takes responsibility for initial assessment, educational planning and remedial intervention for pupils with learning, emotional or behavioural...
- Other Questions: Psychological Assessments (9 Apr 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: On the basis of what I have said, the Deputy can take it that that is the case. If, however, he wants to provide me with details of a particular instance where this may have arisen, I will be happy to obtain more comprehensive information for him.
- Other Questions: School Textbooks Rental Scheme (9 Apr 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: The Department will continue to provide a book grant as usual for all primary schools and this grant can be utilised for the purposes of updating or expanding a school's existing book rental scheme. The National Parents Council - Primary has surveyed its members on book rental schemes currently in operation. The survey has found that they are open to all parents in 95% of cases, that the...
- Other Questions: School Enrolments Data (9 Apr 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: Information on the number of pupils enrolled in individual schools is provided in the national school annual census. Results from the census for the current school year - 2013-14 - are being finalised. All data at first level and a final list of schools and their enrolments will be published on my Department's website by the end of the school year. Based on the preliminary figures which...
- Other Questions: School Enrolments Data (9 Apr 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: The decision on this matter was taken in the light of the extraordinary set of economic circumstances which obtained when we entered office. We had no choice but to make reductions all over the place and this was one of the areas affected. When I made the announcement on this matter, I gave schools a three year horizon within which they might examine their own situations and provide for a...
- Other Questions: School Enrolments Data (9 Apr 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: I know the Deputy from Donegal and Deputy Ó Cuív, who is seated beside him, are concerned about this matter but I want to assure them both that small schools are not necessarily synonymous with rural Ireland. There are many small schools on either side of a school yard where there is a junior school and a senior school - I am talking about urban areas - where it makes sense to have...
- Other Questions: School Enrolments Data (9 Apr 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: I am talking about the broader picture. I am aware and I respect the Deputies' concerns about parts of rural Ireland, particularly isolated parts where the school is a critical part of the viability of the very community but I am talking about-----
- Other Questions: School Enrolments Data (9 Apr 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: I am still talking about schools in the greater urban complex in Dublin that are to be found across the yard from each other that have not moved or are not looking at rationalisation at a time when everybody has to be bear some degree of support and some degree of the burden of correcting a very difficult economic situation.
- Other Questions: Pupil-Teacher Ratio (9 Apr 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: Under the budget 2012 measures the minimum threshold for a two-teacher school is now 20 pupils. However, if a school is the only school on an island, the pupil threshold for it to remain as a two-teacher school is eight pupils. The number of one-teacher schools over the last five years has varied between four and eight schools. In the 2008-09 school year, there were eight schools, the...
- Other Questions: Pupil-Teacher Ratio (9 Apr 2014)
Ruairi Quinn: I will make the tabular information available to the Deputy. I am aware of his interest in this matter. To quote from my reply, "I can tell the Deputy from preliminary information that there are 60 mainland schools".