Results 3,441-3,460 of 19,032 for speaker:Ruairi Quinn

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Budget 2014 Issues (25 Sep 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: The budget for education, including the number of teaching posts that we can afford to fund in schools is a matter that I will have to consider with my colleagues in Cabinet in the context of the forthcoming budget. The decisions in relation to such matters will be announced at budget time.The Government will endeavour to protect frontline education services as best as possible. However, this...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Fee Paying Schools (25 Sep 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: The budget for education, including the number of teaching posts that we can afford to fund in schools is a matter that I will have to consider with my colleagues in Cabinet in the context of the forthcoming budget. The decisions in relation to such matters will be announced at budget time.The Government will endeavour to protect frontline education services as best as possible. However, this...

Private Members' Business - Cuts in Education: Motion [Private Members] (24 Sep 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: Schools should consult parents on matters relating to their children's education, including those matters which have cost implications. In that regard, I propose to draft a parent and student charter in consultation with interested parties and to give it some statutory basis so that parents will be empowered to do some of the things I believe Deputies across the political spectrum wish to...

Private Members' Business - Cuts in Education: Motion [Private Members] (24 Sep 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I could refer to what we are doing in other areas, but I do not want to deprive my colleagues of speaking time. I thank Sinn Féin for introducing the motion.

Private Members' Business - Cuts in Education: Motion [Private Members] (24 Sep 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I move amendment No. 2:To delete all words after “Dáil Éireann” and substitute the following:“recognises that:- the latest Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 'Education at a Glance' survey from 2013, relating to the 2010 year, reports that the State was investing 6.4 per cent of GDP in education, compared to an OECD average of 6.3 per...

Private Members' Business - Cuts in Education: Motion [Private Members] (24 Sep 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: Gabh mo leithscéal, ach níl Gaeilge mhaith agam. Ní féidir liom an méid atá le rá ag an Teachta a thuiscint.

Private Members' Business - Cuts in Education: Motion [Private Members] (24 Sep 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: It is not available.

Private Members' Business - Cuts in Education: Motion [Private Members] (24 Sep 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: It has been a long day.

Topical Issue Debate: Postal Services (24 Sep 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: As the Deputy and the House will know, I am responding to this matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Rabbitte. The Minister would like to assure the Deputy that the Government is committed to a strong and viable An Post and supports the maintenance of the maximum number of economically viable post offices. The commercial...

Topical Issue Debate: Postal Services (24 Sep 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I understand the point the Deputy is making. I know the Minister, Senator Harte and others are equally concerned. Everybody in Donegal has been affected by the historical legacy of partition, etc. Let me put some statistics on the table. An Post has 1,144 retail outlets, of which 57 are company-owned and operated and 1,087 outlets are contract offices. A total of 146 outlets are postal...

Topical Issue Debate: Haddington Road Agreement Issues (24 Sep 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: It is important in any discussion of the Haddington Road agreement to remember the context within which this agreement came into being. This Government on coming to office inherited a financial situation of the most extreme gravity. Essentially, the country had lost its economic sovereignty, and as a Government we were obliged to look at all possible options for retrieving the situation,...

Topical Issue Debate: Haddington Road Agreement Issues (24 Sep 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I would like to see a resolution to this disagreement. ASTI is on its own in this regard but its importance to the system is not without significance. The summer has passed. Three of the four teacher unions reflected and waited until their members were back at work, so to speak, to ballot them. We got the results of those ballots in the past couple of days, including that from IFUT. I...

Topical Issue Debate: Teacher Training Provision (24 Sep 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: The managerial bodies are the employers. As I have stated on many occasions, there is a public private partnership arrangement in the education system between the State, on one hand, and the patron bodies or employers on the other. We can urge, make requests and engage in dialogue, but we cannot give direction to employers in the context of who they can or cannot employ. Since I became...

An Appreciation of the Life and Work of Seamus Heaney: Statements (24 Sep 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: Much of the time not in very good prose.

Topical Issue Debate: Teacher Training Provision (24 Sep 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: The Deputy has raised the important issue of the probation of newly qualified teachers, and I welcome the opportunity to discuss it. The period between qualification and fully independent practice as a teacher is a vital stage of the newly qualified teacher's career. It is important that coherent and supportive induction and probation structures are in place to facilitate the newly...

An Appreciation of the Life and Work of Seamus Heaney: Statements (24 Sep 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: Yes.

An Appreciation of the Life and Work of Seamus Heaney: Statements (24 Sep 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: Unlike you, comrade, he lived in the real world.

An Appreciation of the Life and Work of Seamus Heaney: Statements (24 Sep 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: Yes, he did.

An Appreciation of the Life and Work of Seamus Heaney: Statements (24 Sep 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: He was political but not partisan.

An Appreciation of the Life and Work of Seamus Heaney: Statements (24 Sep 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: Seamus Heaney was a great poet. Perhaps he had we in this place in mind when he wrote the following in 1985 at the request of Ms Mary Lawlor of Amnesty International Ireland to mark international human rights day. It has since inspired a generation of human rights activists. Amnesty International's highest award, the ambassador of conscience, is inspired by his work. Members probably know...