Results 2,821-2,840 of 16,057 for speaker:Mary Coughlan
- School Patronage (6 May 2010)
Mary Coughlan: -----equally must be consulted.
- School Patronage (6 May 2010)
Mary Coughlan: My issue with a forum is that we would have yet another forum, yet another two or three years of pontification and philosophy, following which we would revert to having no decisions. I certainly do not want to end up with no change and a lack of decision making.
- School Patronage (6 May 2010)
Mary Coughlan: The Catholic Church, through Archbishop Martin, approached my predecessor. He was not in a position to advise my predecessor as to where he felt areas could be divested. My Department was asked to identify those areas-----
- School Patronage (6 May 2010)
Mary Coughlan: -----on the basis of certain criteria. That work is almost completed and will be completed, as I indicated, by the end of the month.
- School Patronage (6 May 2010)
Mary Coughlan: Yes, it will be published.
- School Patronage (6 May 2010)
Mary Coughlan: It will then go back to the Catholic Church as it is the patron that will need to divest itself of its patronage. I do not have a problem with hearing what all Members of this House have to say. There is diversity within the Deputy's party because people come from different perspectives and different geographical areas. There are younger Members of this House and older Members of the...
- School Patronage (6 May 2010)
Mary Coughlan: There have been many forums set up on many occasions on many of these issues.
- School Patronage (6 May 2010)
Mary Coughlan: Unfortunately they have taken a considerable amount of time. I do not want to talk about theory, I want to talk about how this can be practically achieved. It is much easier to achieve in certain areas, such as my part of the world where there has not been a huge change in population or demographics. In trying to provide diversity, we must respect everyone's views. There are clearly many...
- School Patronage (6 May 2010)
Mary Coughlan: In the briefings I have received on discussions with the previous Minister, although the archbishop was anxious to make progress, with the reality of changes in dioceses and supports in the Catholic church and numbers, the church will not be in a position to continue. In those briefings, the archbishop spoke about divesting and we are anxious to pursue that, we are working on methods to...
- School Patronage (6 May 2010)
Mary Coughlan: I am not frightened of anything, I want to see how change can be achieved.
- School Patronage (6 May 2010)
Mary Coughlan: The process will be very open.
- Industrial Relations (6 May 2010)
Mary Coughlan: I believe that a high level of mathematical achievement is vital for Ireland and that we need to improve attainment levels in maths.
- Industrial Relations (6 May 2010)
Mary Coughlan: No, this is about mathematics.
- Industrial Relations (6 May 2010)
Mary Coughlan: Sorry, the Deputy is right. I should be telling him about the great time I had at the INTO conference.
- Industrial Relations (6 May 2010)
Mary Coughlan: Sorry, question No. 8 has been put in front of me. I could nearly tell the House of the top of my head about the great time I had at the conferences. I used the invitation to speak at the Easter conferences of INTO and TUI as an opportunity to set the financial and economic context governing the provision of resources to schools and colleges as well as looking at a number of challenges and...
- Order of Business (6 May 2010)
Mary Coughlan: Legislation on directly elected mayors will be this session. As the Taoiseach indicated yesterday in his response, the matter of the children's rights referendum is with the Minister of State, Deputy Barry Andrews. The Government has not made a final decision. Until such time as the Government has made that decision there will be no determination on when there will be a referendum. The...
- Order of Business (6 May 2010)
Mary Coughlan: Clearly the Government will make a decision on determining when that referendum should take place. However, as I indicated before - as did the Taoiseach - that matter has not been finalised by the Government yet. We will consider that once the Minister of State has completed his work. It is important for us to move ahead on the basis of what heretofore was an all-party agreement.
- Order of Business (6 May 2010)
Mary Coughlan: The Government will make its decision on the appropriate way in which we can progress the matter.
- Order of Business (6 May 2010)
Mary Coughlan: We are not terrified, but the Deputy might be more terrified than some over here are.
- Order of Business (6 May 2010)
Mary Coughlan: All in this House agree that a constitutional amendment on children's rights should be seen as being beyond politics.