Results 1,841-1,860 of 20,682 for speaker:Mary Hanafin

Written Answers — Schools Building Projects: Schools Building Projects (21 Apr 2005)

Mary Hanafin: The property management section of the Office of Public Works, is acting on behalf of my Department with regard to the acquisition of a site for the school referred to by the Deputy. In the course of its duties that office would make contact with the town council. Seven sites are currently under consideration as a location for this particular school. Due to the commercial sensitivities of...

Written Answers — Special Educational Needs: Special Educational Needs (21 Apr 2005)

Mary Hanafin: I can confirm that an application for five hours resource teaching support and a full-time special needs assistant, SNA, was considered by my Department. As the Deputy is aware, a letter issued to the school in September 2004 advising that three and a half hours resource teaching support was sanctioned. The school authorities were also advised recently that this pupil did not meet the...

Written Answers — Parental Leave Provisions: Parental Leave Provisions (21 Apr 2005)

Mary Hanafin: Under maternity protection legislation all employees in the public bodies under the aegis of my Department are entitled to 18 weeks' paid maternity leave and eight weeks' additional unpaid maternity leave. Any changes to paid maternity leave arrangements would be an issue for the Government as a whole. My Department does not have an estimate of the cost of extending parental leave as...

Written Answers — Public Capital Programme: Public Capital Programme (21 Apr 2005)

Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 240 to 242, inclusive, together. A total of 122.23 whole-time equivalent staff are assigned to the planning and building unit of my Department on work related to the public capital programme for the education sector, of whom 90 are in administrative grades and 32.23 are in professional and technical grades. These figures represent an increase of 29% on the...

Schools Building Projects. (26 Apr 2005)

Mary Hanafin: The Government has invested in the largest school building programme in the history of the State. Between 1998 and the end of 2004, almost €2 billion was invested in school buildings and approximately 7,500 large and small projects were completed in schools, including 130 new schools and 510 large-scale refurbishments and extensions. Funding for school building and renovation projects has...

Schools Building Projects. (26 Apr 2005)

Mary Hanafin: There has been no change in the policy of supporting fee paying schools. Since the foundation of the State all parties and all Governments have supported such schools, largely to protect choice and the ethos of minorities. The change of policy in Fine Gael surprises me. Despite the operation of the same policy for 80 years, Fine Gael has now decided that schools should not receive moneys for...

Schools Building Projects. (26 Apr 2005)

Mary Hanafin: Basically, this will penalise the Church of Ireland ethos, the Presbyterian ethos and the Jewish ethos, as these are the only schools in the country who receive funds for capitation and day-to-day expenses. This is a major change of policy on Fine Gael's part. However, there has been no change of policy in Fianna Fáil or the Government. We continue to pay the teachers of the fee paying...

Schools Building Projects. (26 Apr 2005)

Mary Hanafin: There will be no change in the policy of paying teachers' salaries in fee paying schools at second level. Those teachers would have to be paid, irrespective of which school those children attended.

Schools Building Projects. (26 Apr 2005)

Mary Hanafin: There is no change in policy in that regard. Only ten of the almost 1,200 school projects which are being funded for building this year are for fee paying schools. A number of them are for Protestant schools which receive 100% grants anyway. The announcement made last week did not concern schools that will be going to tender or construction this week. It only concerned those moving forward to...

Schools Building Projects. (26 Apr 2005)

Mary Hanafin: Each school and each board of management is responsible for its own enrolment policy, as the Deputy is well aware.

School Staffing. (26 Apr 2005)

Mary Hanafin: I am aware of the decreasing number of males entering the teaching profession and I know that the situation is particularly acute at primary level. The relatively low number of males in the teaching force is a feature common to all OECD countries. OECD statistics show the situation in Ireland to be close to the OECD average. It is important to attract more men into teaching for a number of...

School Staffing. (26 Apr 2005)

Mary Hanafin: I am not sure if there is any connection between boys doing honours Irish for the leaving certificate and their subsequent entry into the training colleges. It is useful to look at the numbers across both sectors, as Deputy O'Sullivan has done. For example, when the appointment of teachers at primary school last year is considered, 1,213 female teachers were appointed and only 144 male...

School Staffing. (26 Apr 2005)

Mary Hanafin: Deputy O'Sullivan is quite mistaken in thinking I am opposed to changing the curriculum. The curriculum needs to be constantly updated and to respond to societal changes. We need to examine the entry-points rating of teacher training colleges in the context of the question. The entry points rating is not prohibitively high. The dearth of men in teacher training colleges has more to do with...

Special Educational Needs. (26 Apr 2005)

Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 53 and 395 together. The advisory committee for the deaf and hard of hearing was established in December 2001. The committee held 38 meetings over a three-year period as well as a number of other meetings at subcommittee stage. However, from an early stage in the committee's deliberations it became apparent that there were entrenched, divergent views among...

Special Educational Needs. (26 Apr 2005)

Mary Hanafin: After three years, it was evident the differences between the two groups on the committee were not only insurmountable but historical and deeply felt. At no stage was there any possibility of progress being made. Even if things were agreed at the subcommittee level, differences emerged once decisions were brought back to plenary level. There are two very fundamental differences between the...

Irish Language. (26 Apr 2005)

Mary Hanafin: The recent report of the Irish Language Commissioner highlighted the fact that despite appreciable time devoted to Irish in the school system, many students emerge from primary and post-primary education without achieving a reasonable command of the language. Particular concerns were raised about students' command of the spoken language. While I accept that the standard of oral Irish in...

Irish Language. (26 Apr 2005)

Mary Hanafin: I have no plans to change the mandatory nature as it is important that people should learn their native language at all levels of the education system. On the matter of the overall environment, Institiúid Teangeolaíochta Éireann and other language groups have made it clear that the learning of a second language in school cannot flourish in the absence of environmental supports. As any...

Higher Education Grants. (26 Apr 2005)

Mary Hanafin: The most recent data on participation rates at third level is that published in the HEA review of higher education participation in 2003, which showed that participation in higher education among the school leaver age cohort has passed the 50% mark for the first time. The study puts the overall transfer rate to higher education in 2003 at 54%, as opposed to 44% in 1998, 36% in 1992, 25% in...

Higher Education Grants. (26 Apr 2005)

Mary Hanafin: I understand the number of people in receipt of third level grants and benefiting under the schemes is 56,000. The amount of money involved in this has increased substantially. The HEA and my Department are working on a comprehensive computerised student records system that will not only deal with the numbers of people but their social profiles and the educational courses they are following....

Higher Education Grants. (26 Apr 2005)

Mary Hanafin: When one looks at the profile, one finds the rate of participation among people in working class, or even middle class, Dublin in the grant schemes is not as great as that in rural areas. As I said before, the widow in the large house in Dún Laoghaire who has no money——