Results 2,381-2,400 of 3,797 for speaker:Ciarán Cannon

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (6 Nov 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: Bus Éireann operates the school transport scheme on behalf of my Department; it is responsible for the time-tabling and routing of services. Seats are allocated and tickets issued up to the maximum seating capacity of a school bus and once the seating capacity is reached, no further tickets can be issued. On any given school day it is impossible to anticipate the exact number of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Adult Education (6 Nov 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: Migrants, including workers and refugees, will continue to be able to access a range of courses that have always been provided by Vocational Education Committees (VECs) under the Adult Literacy and Community Education Scheme (ALCES) and the Back to Education Initiative (BTEI), both of which are funded by my Department. In 2011, some 12,000 people people accessed English as a Second Language...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (6 Nov 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: Under the terms of my Department's Post Primary School Transport Scheme, children are eligible for transport where they reside not less than 4.8 kms from and are attending their nearest education centre as determined by my Department/Bus Éireann, having regard to ethos and language. Bus Éireann, which operates the school transport scheme on behalf of my Department, has advised...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (6 Nov 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: Bus Éireann operates the school transport service on behalf of my Department. Routes are planned in such a way to ensure that, as far as possible, eligible pupils have a reasonable standard of service with regard to pick-up points and travel and waiting times, while at the same time, ensuring that school transport vehicles are fully utilised in the most efficient and cost effective...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education and Training Boards (6 Nov 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: The recently published Education and Training Boards Bill 2012 sets out the functional areas for the proposed Education and Training Boards. Following the establishment of the Training Boards and SOLAS, it is intended that FÁS training centres and external facilities such as Community Training Centres will be transferred to the appropriate Education and Training Board on the basis of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (6 Nov 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: Bus Éireann is responsible for the planning and timetabling of school transport routes. Bus Éireann endeavours, within available resources, to ensure that each eligible child has a reasonable level of school transport service in the context of the Scheme nationally. Where practicable, and subject to considerations of cost and logistics, routes are planned to avoid an eligible child...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (25 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: Bus Éireann which operates the school transport scheme on behalf of my Department has advised that an application for transport was received for the pupil referred to by the Deputy in September 2012, at which stage the service was operating to capacity. The Remote Area Grant may be payable to eligible families for whom no transport service is available. In this regard, my Department has...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (24 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: I propose to take Questions Nos. 62 and 63 together. Bus Éireann has advised that the parent was verbally informed of the situation regarding transport for the child in question at the end of the last school year. The family was offered a special transport grant to cover the cost of private transport arrangements while Bus Éireann was examining the provision of an alternative...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (23 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: Bus Éireann operates the School Transport Scheme on behalf of my Department. Under the terms of my Department's Primary School Transport Scheme, children are eligible for transport where they reside not less than 3.2 kms from and are attending their nearest school as determined by the Department/Bus Éireann, having regard to ethos and language. Children who are not eligible for...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (23 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: School transport services for eligible children generally operate during the 'Standard School Year' and facilitate a child's attendance during normal school opening and closing times only. Bus Éireann, which operates the School Transport Scheme on behalf of my Department, plan bus routes in such a way as to ensure that, as far as possible, eligible children have a reasonable level of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (23 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: Under the terms of my Department's School Transport Scheme for Children with Special Educational Needs children are eligible for transport where they are attending the nearest recognised: mainstream school, special class/special school or a unit, that is or can be resourced, to meet their special educational needs. In this case, the child in question is not attending his nearest school and is...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (23 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: From the commencement of the 2012/13 school year, school transport eligibility for post primary pupils is being determined by reference to the distance they reside from their nearest post-primary education centre having regard to ethos and language. In relation to school transport provision, ethos relates to religious ethos and is in the context of provision for minority religions....

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (23 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: Under the terms of my Department's School Transport Scheme for Children with Special Educational Needs children are eligible for transport where they are attending the nearest recognised: mainstream school, special class/special school or a unit, that is or can be resourced, to meet their special educational needs. In this case, the child in question is not attending her nearest school and...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Adult Education (23 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: Under the Adult Literacy and Community Education Scheme (ALCES) and the Back to Education Initiative (BTEI), my Department provides annual grants to Vocational Education Committees (VECs) for programmes in basic education, including adult literacy and numeracy classes. These programmes are aimed at adults with less than upper second level education and a range of target groups within them,...

Topical Issue Debate: Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme (18 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: I thank Deputy Doherty for raising this issue. My Department funds a range of further and higher education and training courses and programmes which are open to the unemployed. All further education and training courses are delivered free of charge to welfare recipients. The vocational training opportunities scheme, VTOS, is one of a range of full-time further education and training...

Topical Issue Debate: Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme (18 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: The Deputy is clearly aware of the conditions and criteria applying to the VTOS scheme. There are almost 450,000 people on the live register. About 100,000 of those are now long-term unemployed. The longer they remain unemployed the more unemployable they become. My Department and the Department of Social Protection has, therefore, focused on that cohort of people who are the most...

Topical Issue Debate: Health Insurance Claims (18 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: I am responding on behalf of the Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly. I thank Deputy Humphreys for raising this important issue. The HSE and voluntary hospitals recoup a considerable amount from private health insurance companies in return for private and semi-private treatment services provided to patients with private health insurance cover. However, lengthy delays can often occur...

Topical Issue Debate: Health Insurance Claims (18 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: I think Deputy Kevin Humphreys. I agree wholeheartedly that these are significant sums of money that could be expended on front-line services but they are held in abeyance because of a lack of will from certain ranks within the health sector and, perhaps, bureaucratic difficulties associated with the payment process. The Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, has prioritised the solution to...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport Availability (18 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: Primary school transport routes are planned so that, as far as possible, no eligible child will have more than 2.4 kilometres to travel to a pick-up point. Children living off the main route of a service are expected to make their own way, or to be brought to convenient pick-up points along the main route. Home pick-ups were never envisaged as being part of the Primary School Transport...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport Availability (18 Oct 2012)

Ciarán Cannon: Primary school transport routes are planned so that, as far as possible, no eligible child will have more than 2.4 kilometres to travel to a pick-up point. Children living off the main route of a service are expected to make their own way, or to be brought to convenient pick-up points along the main route. Home pick-ups were never envisaged as being part of the Primary School Transport...