Results 2,161-2,180 of 19,032 for speaker:Ruairi Quinn

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Fees (23 Jan 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: The main criteria of the Free Fees Initiative is that students must be first-time undergraduates, hold inter alia EU/EEA/Swiss nationality in their own right, and have been ordinarily resident in an EU/EEA/Swiss state for at least three of the five years preceding their entry to an approved third level course. Where students do not qualify for free fees they must pay the appropriate fee -...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (Revised) (22 Jan 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: Approximately €40 million.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (Revised) (22 Jan 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: Like all other entities within the system, the Department is under enormous pressure in the context of staff numbers. Mr. Michael Keogh, who is sitting next to me, is the assistant secretary with responsibility not just for matters relating to finance but also for those relating to personnel. Workloads are increasing and people who are retiring are not being replaced. In light of the...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (Revised) (22 Jan 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: There are two sides to the story. I was on both sides of the fence growing up. If one is seeking one's qualification or "pilot's licence" in terms of teaching, one must complete so many "flying hours". A similar issue arose with regard to construction apprentices who were made redundant when their employer's went bankrupt. Those individuals were left high and dry. They just wanted to...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (Revised) (22 Jan 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: I think I just made them.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (Revised) (22 Jan 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: We will discuss that issue in detail when we deal with the enrolment legislation. It certainly is an issue of great concern and there are opinions on both sides.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (Revised) (22 Jan 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: I will not address the more philosophical issues the Chairman raised. Our post-primary school system is at least 150 years old and has resulted in a typical provincial town having three or four schools, all under the patronage of the Catholic Church, with nobody in the town being under any allusion as to the social status of the Ursuline school versus the Presentation school versus the Mercy...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (Revised) (22 Jan 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: My officials tell me it is under subhead D3, which is on page 58 of the documentation.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (Revised) (22 Jan 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: I would love to be able to do so. If Deputy Ryan can bend the arm of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, I will certainly do so. The decision to prioritise has been difficult. At least I have been up front in telling those affected. Our biggest necessity is to provide additional capacity in the system to allow for the demographical changes. However,...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (Revised) (22 Jan 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: I am aware of the problem at Swords. We will try to do something. I suggest the Deputy gives Deputy Brendan Howlin a kick.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (Revised) (22 Jan 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: To reply frankly to the Deputy, I have no proposals nor will I have proposals to do that. However, I am aware of the need for children who speak Polish at home to be able to access instruction in Polish language and grammar so that they learn to write Polish grammatically. I suggest the Deputy raise this matter with the Cork ETB to ascertain if classroom facilities can be made available....

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (Revised) (22 Jan 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: I am aware of the issue of prefabs in the Lucan area and in one school in particular. We are still trying to solve the situation in that school. In regard to Gaelscoileanna, I am aware that demand is growing, specifically in areas where the population is growing. Divestment by existing patrons might be of some help in this regard, but it is not really a solution because it does not deal...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (Revised) (22 Jan 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: I agree with everything Deputy Cannon has said. That is why we are trying to change the Junior Certificate. The only area of collaboration at junior cycle is on a team of 15 or 11 to win a match, or in a musical or dramatic production, none of which is measured in the examination. In every other activity one is a sole trader and hides one’s essay as it is being written to prevent...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (Revised) (22 Jan 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: Two schools stand out in the exhibition which has been running for 50 years. It started in Albuquerque in New Mexico where two lecturers from UCD saw a high school science fair and brought the idea back here. Synge Street, a famous school in Dublin’s inner city is in the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools, DEIS, space and has a cohort of students from new immigrant groups...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (Revised) (22 Jan 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: I suggest that the Chairman invite Colm O’Neill, the CEO of BT Ireland to meet the committee. The Department has funded this and it is part of the corporate social responsibility activity for many BT personnel. It is not confined to the week of the exhibition. The personnel are involved in administering it in their own time for which they do not get paid. There is no Young...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (Revised) (22 Jan 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: It is the follow-through of a budgetary measure adopted in 2012.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (Revised) (22 Jan 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: I will tell the Deputy where my head is at the moment. It is the same for people who decide to become secondary school teachers and the education colleges which are clustered around six centres. There is no distinction made in our funding for certain types of teacher. Three years ago the Independent News and Media group ran a campaign to find out how many qualified mathematics teachers...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (Revised) (22 Jan 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: The first question was on the position on capital assets. There is no agreement between the two parties in coalition on broadening the base of the assessment from household income to reserves, savings or capital assets. It is not part of the programme for Government and, as I have said previously in public, that is the position at the moment. There may be some movement on broadening the...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (Revised) (22 Jan 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: I will ask my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Ciarán Cannon, to deal with that because he has taken a strong personal interest and he is knowledgeable about the area.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (Revised) (22 Jan 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: I believe it has been raised with us. If the committee has written to the Department, we will examine the correspondence and respond once we have done so.