Results 2,961-2,980 of 3,444 for speaker:Shane Cassells

Public Accounts Committee: HEA - Financial Statement 2015 (29 Mar 2017)

Shane Cassells: I have mentioned the €600 million that will be required by 2021. Last week, I asked the Secretary General of the Department of Education and Skills about the required level of investment. One of the report's opening gambits was that the status quoor incremental improvements would not be sufficient to meet demand. Will that challenge be met by 2021? The stark statement was made that...

Money Advice and Budgeting Service and Citizens Information Centres: Motion (28 Mar 2017)

Shane Cassells: I welcome the opportunity to speak to the motion. Three weeks ago, Angela Black and members of the Citizens Information Board, CIB, and MABS appeared before the Joint Committee on Public Petitions. Very few parliamentarians turned up that day, although Deputy Denise Mitchell was one of the few. The quality of the service we discussed was acknowledged by us all as second to none. That...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Child Care Services Provision (28 Mar 2017)

Shane Cassells: 33. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she will address the anomaly created under the affordable child care scheme whereby the places of children who are currently availing of essential early intervention supports under CCS and whose parents will not meet the eligibility criteria for ACS will no longer be funded; the way the early intervention needs of this group of...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (23 Mar 2017)

Shane Cassells: I welcome Mr. Ó Foghlú and his team. A lot has been covered already but I have a few questions. One of the most startling things was the percentage of the budget that relates to pay, as in so many Departments. It is 80%. On a topic related to pay, I wish to ask about a 2001 Labour Court recommendation by the then chairperson, Mr. Finbarr Flood, that local training initiative...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (23 Mar 2017)

Shane Cassells: I appreciate that because it is going on for 16 years now. These people effectively perform the same duties. I would appreciate it if I could get a follow-up on that.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (23 Mar 2017)

Shane Cassells: I move on to the debate of the special needs assistants and the funding for that, particularly for those on the autism spectrum. How is the Department handling that within the primary school network with regard to the funding and the grants available for autism spectrum disorder, ASD, units? Is the Department meeting the demand that has been submitted to it? In terms of the follow-on to...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (23 Mar 2017)

Shane Cassells: We could all give anecdotal examples of how the places are not available in our own constituencies. Will the witness elaborate very briefly on some of the conceptual ideas the Department is working with? It would put at ease many of the concerns parents have in terms of availing of space within a relative and easily accessible geographical spread.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (23 Mar 2017)

Shane Cassells: Okay. I turn to higher education, which was mentioned by a number of speakers, and the expert report on same. Section 2.3 of that report has a startling headline. I think it sums up the entire report. The headline reads, "The Contribution of Higher Education to Ireland's Development is Now Threatened". It points out, "Core funding per student in Ireland fell by 22 per cent in the seven...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (23 Mar 2017)

Shane Cassells: I accept that. I am asking in terms of the pace of delivery, given what was allocated in the budget this year.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (23 Mar 2017)

Shane Cassells: That is a fear. I have a fear that they cannot agree the day of the week. In the interim, given what the budget allocations were in October of last year, the deadline that was set out and what was asked to be achieved year on year to that point, I simply ask whether the witness thinks that will be achieved.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (23 Mar 2017)

Shane Cassells: Just on that-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (23 Mar 2017)

Shane Cassells: Okay. I accept there was a funding increase, but what was allocated this year was not what was called for. The witness said the Department and the Minister made a call. They did. There were funding reductions in the seven-year period up to 2015. We also saw increased enrolment in those years as well. Those were achieved by internal efficiencies, cost-cutting and so forth. What will...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (23 Mar 2017)

Shane Cassells: I know Mr. Ó Foghlú does not want to engage in hypotheticals, but in terms of meeting the student support services for higher education and restoring the staffing levels - we have a chart showing increasing enrolments and decreasing staffing levels - something has to give if the figures are not achieved. I want to know what suffers as a result.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (23 Mar 2017)

Shane Cassells: I sincerely hope for all our sakes that the Minister commits to the levels of funding that were sought on a year by year basis up to 2021 in the first instance. I will now focus on the issue of guidance counsellors in second level education, which was also raised this week. Will Mr. Ó Foghlú outline the timeframe for the reinstatement of the full allocation of guidance counsellors?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (23 Mar 2017)

Shane Cassells: I wish to raise the role of the Department of Education and Skills in the provision of the early years education programme. In the past few years, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs developed an early childhood care and education programme which also falls under the remit of the Departments of Health and Education and Skills. People in the early childhood sector find they fall...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (23 Mar 2017)

Shane Cassells: I know.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (23 Mar 2017)

Shane Cassells: I appreciate that answer from Mr. Ó Foghlú but it did not address my core point, which is the pay disparity between what those in early years education are paid and the pay of a primary school teacher. Those pioneers and champions of early years education have stood outside the Dáil on two occasions in the past 12 months, seeking an admission by Government of their role. I...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (23 Mar 2017)

Shane Cassells: That is the point I am making.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (23 Mar 2017)

Shane Cassells: Mr. Ó Foghlú mentioned utilisation of resources earlier and he referenced a dozen public buildings that had been utilised. In the context of a changing demographic, the population centres were built on the edges of the new towns created on the eastern coast, but there were old large school campuses with few students in the towns. The student population is falling from what it was...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (23 Mar 2017)

Shane Cassells: I compliment Mr. Ó Foghlú and the work he is doing to broaden the school base. I have two children in a community national school, both being reared as Catholics but enjoying the experience of a broad education in the fullest sense within the Ard Rí community national school. I hope that a site will be secured for the building of that school so that it can stop using the...