Results 3,061-3,080 of 3,797 for speaker:Ciarán Cannon

Written Answers — School Transport: School Transport (22 Nov 2011)

Ciarán Cannon: 1One of the Department's objectives is to provide a reasonable level of transport service for eligible pupils to and from school. Bus Eireann, which manages school transport services on behalf of the Department, is responsible for the establishment, contracting and operation of those services in an efficient and cost-effective manner. The school transport service which was in place for the...

Written Answers — School Transport: School Transport (22 Nov 2011)

Ciarán Cannon: 1Under the terms of my Department's School Transport scheme, a pupil with special educational needs is eligible for school transport if he or she is attending the nearest recognised mainstream school, special class, special school or a unit, that is or can be resourced to meet the child's special educational needs under Department of Education and Skills criteria. My Department was recently...

Written Answers — Vocational Education Committees: Vocational Education Committees (16 Nov 2011)

Ciarán Cannon: The Government decided in July 2011 that there would be a major restructuring of the Further Education and Training sector. This will involve the creation of a new authority called SOLAS, under the aegis of the Department of Education and Skills, to be responsible for the coordination and funding of the sector. The restructuring will lead to the transfer over time of some 700 staff from FÁS...

Written Answers — Youth Services: Youth Services (16 Nov 2011)

Ciarán Cannon: There are almost 6,000 Youthreach places available nationwide under the Youthreach umbrella funded by my Department. The overall number of approved Youthreach places is set at its current level because there is a continuing requirement to plan and control numbers and to manage expenditure within the context of overall educational policy and provision. Any consideration of providing...

Written Answers — School Transport: School Transport (16 Nov 2011)

Ciarán Cannon: Changes in the School Transport Scheme were announced by the previous Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government and derive from recommendations in the Value for Money Review of the scheme. One of the changes announced was the uniform application of the distance criterion of 3.2 kilometres to all pupils travelling under the primary school transport scheme. This change, which came into effect...

Written Answers — School Transport: School Transport (16 Nov 2011)

Ciarán Cannon: My Department has sanctioned a transport service for the pupil referred to by the Deputy in the details supplied. Bus Éireann, which operates the School Transport Schemes on behalf of my Department, is making the necessary arrangements in this regard.

Special Educational Needs (16 Nov 2011)

Ciarán Cannon: Under the terms of my Department's school transport scheme, a pupil with special educational needs is eligible for school transport if he or she is attending the nearest recognised mainstream school, special class, special school or a unit, that is or can be resourced to meet the child's special educational needs under Department of Education and Skills criteria. While school transport...

Special Educational Needs (16 Nov 2011)

Ciarán Cannon: I mentioned earlier that I have asked for a code of practice to be introduced for the provision of school transport to children with special educational needs. I hope that will help to expedite the process. However, I wish to outline the process whereby a child with special educational needs secures a school transport service. The application is completed by the parent and signed by the...

Special Educational Needs (16 Nov 2011)

Ciarán Cannon: Following on from the publication of the code of practice, I will undertake to discuss this with my officials. My sense is that as much streamlining as possible has already been carried out. There is a significant amount of tendering for unique, tailored services responding to the needs of individual children, but the tendering process, by law, is a pretty convoluted one, and there are...

Special Educational Needs (16 Nov 2011)

Ciarán Cannon: I agree that this is completely unacceptable. If the Deputy liaises with our Department we will undertake to have a meeting organised as soon as possible.

Mental Health Awareness (16 Nov 2011)

Ciarán Cannon: I take this topical issue debate on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn. I thank Deputy Harris for raising this important issue. Schools play a vital role in reducing the stigma surrounding mental health issues and mental health education features strongly in the curriculum. The social, personal and health education, SPHE, programme has been a...

Mental Health Awareness (16 Nov 2011)

Ciarán Cannon: I share many of the sentiments expressed by Deputy Harris. He is correct in saying that in the past a major stigma has been attached to mental health issues in this country and where better to address that than in our education system. In making our children more environmentally aware we have succeeded in making them the environmental wardens or lieutenants of our country through the green...

Special Educational Needs (16 Nov 2011)

Ciarán Cannon: Under the terms of the school transport scheme of the Department of Education and Skills, a pupil with special educational needs is eligible for school transport if he or she is attending the nearest recognised mainstream school, special class, special school or unit that is or can be resourced to meet the child's special educational needs under the Department's criteria. To date, the...

Special Educational Needs (16 Nov 2011)

Ciarán Cannon: If the Deputy wants to pass on the details of the individual case he has mentioned, I will undertake to explore it further with him. Special education needs organisers have expertise in providing special education and assigning special educational supports to individual children on the basis of their unique individual needs. The policy we operate is that transport shall be provided to a...

Special Educational Needs (16 Nov 2011)

Ciarán Cannon: I will undertake to examine that case personally.

Written Answers — European Globalisation Fund: European Globalisation Fund (15 Nov 2011)

Ciarán Cannon: Approval from both the European Council and the European Parliament is still awaited of the three EGF applications submitted by Ireland in respect of almost 9,000 construction sector workers who were made redundant between 1 July 2009 and 31 May 20010 and whose eligibility for assistance within the requirements of the EGF regulations has been ascertained by my Department. In the interim a...

Written Answers — EU Funding: EU Funding (15 Nov 2011)

Ciarán Cannon: The consultants WRC Social and Economic Consultants Ltd. (WRC) were contracted by the Department to provide certain administrative and technical support unit services to EGF funded programmes in Ireland under the current EGF Programme 2007 - 2013. The first phase of this framework contract concerns tasks in relation to the S R Technics EGF programme and was signed on 9 June 2011. The next...

Written Answers — FÁS Training Programmes: FÁS Training Programmes (15 Nov 2011)

Ciarán Cannon: I understand from FÁS that the person in question is recorded on the National Apprenticeship Database as a redundant apprentice at Phase 7 of his apprenticeship. I understand that upon completing Phase 6 of his apprenticeship the person obtained employment again with his employer but only for two weeks and that this does not satisfy the requirement for completion of a minimum of 12 weeks at...

Written Answers — Training Programmes: Training Programmes (10 Nov 2011)

Ciarán Cannon: The centre referred to is a Senior Traveller Training Centre (STTC) managed by County Dublin Vocational Education Committee (VEC). In line with the Traveller Education Strategy and the 2008 Value for Money (VFM) Review of Youthreach and STTCs, it was announced in Budget 2011 that an integrated further education provision for Travellers would be implemented through the phasing out of STTCs by...

Written Answers — FÁS Training Programmes: FÁS Training Programmes (10 Nov 2011)

Ciarán Cannon: Over the past three years Government policy has re-focussed the resources and work of FÁS from training for the employed to training for the many newly unemployed persons and jobseekers who come to FÁS seeking assistance. Consequently, the primary client group of FÁS Training Services are unemployed persons, many of whom cannot afford the costs associated with taking up a place on a...