Results 3,701-3,720 of 3,777 for speaker:Marc Ó Cathasaigh

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I thank the Minister and the Minister of State for coming in and giving an excellent and very informative presentation. I want to echo comments on the importance of the creation of this new Department. I am very gladdened to hear the Minister emphasise further education because it is very often overlooked. I was also glad to hear the Minister state so clearly that there are many pathways...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I welcome the fact that those affected by the error in the calculated grades process and who received an upward grade revision have been accommodated on college courses. I echo the concerns expressed by Deputy Conway-Walsh for the 2018-19 cohort of students. I am sure every one of us has a story of a constituent who would have made the grade in previous years but who has now fallen short by...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I would like the Minister to follow that up because I am hearing reports from lecturers that it may be an issue.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I strongly welcome the apprenticeship action plan. It is important to acknowledge the decades-long tradition of Irish tradespeople being welcomed all over the world because the quality of their apprenticeship training was so high. I will refer briefly to the town centres first policy that is written into the programme for Government. If we are to revitalise the centres of our towns and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Discussion (7 Oct 2020)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I thank the Minister for the presentation made today. It was useful. It has clearly been underpinned by a great amount of work by the Department. The one comment or question I have is about the principal of reciprocity or the reciprocal arrangement. A great deal has been happening with Brexit and we have seen ample preparation on the European and Irish sides. This has not always been...

Ábhair Shaincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Matters: National Transport Authority (6 Oct 2020)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I am afraid it feels like a point of no return. It is something that has been closely monitored by people with an interest in this route over the years. It feels a little like a managed decline. I am also worried that we will end up tearing out an excellent and strategic piece of infrastructure with a view to developing a greenway on it. We have a EuroVelo route which has been developed...

Ábhair Shaincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Matters: National Transport Authority (6 Oct 2020)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: We had an unhappy birthday lately in the south east with the 10th anniversary of the closure of the Rosslare to Waterford train route occurring within the past few weeks. This put an end to a rail link that joined towns across south Wexford to Waterford city, as well as supplying heavy rail infrastructure to two major ports, Belview and Rosslare Europort. Since the closure of the line,...

Covid-19 (Arts): Statements (6 Oct 2020)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Like many of us, I suspect, when we heard the sad news of the passing of Derek Mahon over the weekend I went to the bookshelf and pulled out a book to reacquaint myself with some of his beautiful and lyrical work. In reading "An Bonnán Buí" two lines jumped out at me: the whole unfortunate country frozen over and your voice stilled by enforced sobriety -- Those words...

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Covid-19 Pandemic (1 Oct 2020)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: 29. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the progress of the arts and culture recovery task force; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27359/20]

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Covid-19: Strategic Options for Government Plan to Eliminate Community Transmission (23 Sep 2020)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: The Chairman caught me off my guard there.

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Covid-19: Strategic Options for Government Plan to Eliminate Community Transmission (23 Sep 2020)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: No, it is fine. We have had a good level of public buy-in. The Irish public worked hard at the initial flattening of the curve. In common with other areas across Europe and the world, we are beginning to suffer from lockdown fatigue, where it is becoming more difficult to sustain the level of lockdown we are in. In that regard, I am interested in what Dr. Schaffer, in particular, was...

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Covid-19: Strategic Options for Government Plan to Eliminate Community Transmission (23 Sep 2020)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: This is something I have raised with the Minister for Health and I would certainly like to see it investigated. I ask the witnesses to comment on the success or otherwise of the Covid-19 tracing app. We have had huge public buy-in, with well over 1 million people having downloaded the app onto their phones. I ask the experts, particularly Dr. Ryan and Dr. McConkey, to comment on how...

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Covid-19: Strategic Options for Government Plan to Eliminate Community Transmission (23 Sep 2020)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: It is obviously a job of work for us, as politicians, to push the public awareness around the app.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (22 Sep 2020)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: 453. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated number of posts of responsibility needed in primary schools to restore posts at the level which was pertained prior to the moratorium; the estimated number of posts which were lost through the moratorium; the number that have been restored to date; and the estimated cost of full restoration to the pre-moratorium level for the...

Climate Action: Statements (17 Sep 2020)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: We no longer live in the world we think we do. In our mind’s eye, we still see ourselves in the relatively benign setting of the Holocene, a period of comparative stability in our climate, which cradled the advent of human civilisation. When I was born, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere was 333 ppm. That was above pre-industrial levels, but...

Back to School, Further and Higher Education and Special Education: Statements (3 Sep 2020)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I welcome the appointment of a dedicated Minister of State with responsibility for special education and inclusion. It was sorely needed. I am very hopeful that it will drive some of the changes needed in this sector. I am glad there is someone with specific responsibility for this and I wish the Minister of State luck with this role. I would like to acknowledge the huge difficulties...

Back to School, Further and Higher Education and Special Education: Statements (3 Sep 2020)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I am sharing time with Deputy Cathal Crowe. This time last year, Deputy Crowe and I would have been welcoming a class into school. This is the first September in 15 years that I have not done so. In the past week, I visited a number of schools in my constituency, from the larger schools such as my own school, Glór na Mara in Tramore, to some of the smaller country schools such as...

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Covid-19: Review of the Reopening of Schools (Resumed) (2 Sep 2020)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I would like to acknowledge the considerable level of work done. It has been a very busy August for anybody involved in education in any shape or form. Having visited a number of schools in my constituency, I know that principals have been extremely busy since the start of August to make the preparations that were necessary. I am sure that is true of the representative bodies that have...

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Covid-19: Review of the Reopening of Schools (Resumed) (2 Sep 2020)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I only have a little time left. We have rightly concentrated on children in this discussion. I also have a question for the representatives from the two parents' organisations. Has research been done on the effects on working parents? Are we seeing many parents deciding to step out of the workforce this year because of the level of uncertainty regarding school closures?

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Covid-19: Review of the Reopening of Schools (Resumed) (2 Sep 2020)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I thank the Minister for coming in to address the Special Committee on Covid-19 Response. I echo previous speakers in acknowledging the work that she, her Department and those more widely in the education sector have done. Principals, boards of management and teachers have put huge work and effort into getting children safely back into school this year and it is important that is...