Results 4,401-4,420 of 19,032 for speaker:Ruairi Quinn

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: All the minor works are capital.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: Could the Chair repeat the question?

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I understand we are scheduled to return to this committee before the end of this Dáil session. I will then be in a much better position to update members on a number of the changes. First, the ETB integration programme is proceeding apace. We have set up an implementation office. The Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, and I are working closely together. Report Stage of the SOLAS...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I do not want to mislead the committee. What I will do is confirm the figures in writing.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I agree with the Deputy in that the Department of Children and Youth Affairs is less than two and a half years old. It grew out of the Department of Health. It was originally under the late Deputy Brian Lenihan and former Deputy Barry Andrews. It was a semi-autonomous unit that has become a full Department. The previous Administration introduced the ECCE programme, which every one of us...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I will try to get an answer to the questions regarding the balance of teacher education and the costs there. Rainwater harvesting systems were first introduced for major school building projects in 2008. Since then, all major school building projects, where site conditions and circumstances allow and where economically viable to do so, can incorporate a rainwater harvesting system into...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I will make that inquiry. It should be relatively easy to find that information.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: We have nothing specific. This was raised at a number of the teachers' conferences last spring and some of the Deputies here will be aware of that. Not everybody who applies to do a conversion course to become a teacher on top of his or her original primary degree is necessarily looking for employment in Ireland. Some of the teacher unions have looked at the demand for teachers within this...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: It is for in-service training.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: Yes.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: The cost in a full year of meeting the increase in the number of teachers generated by the demographic increase is €55 million. Obviously, one-third of that cost will arise in the current year because of the autumn period, and that cost is €18 million in round figures. A SNA costs €30,000, which is approximately 50% of the cost of a qualified teacher.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: The average full-year cost of a SNA is €30,000.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: No, because they are not necessarily proportionate. We have capped the number of SNAs at 10,575. I have not yet had a chance to look at the recommendations from the NCSE this year. We will be publishing them quite soon. However, it is not a pro rata increase per se. It is not a demographically correlated ratio of SNAs to population. It is related specifically to the estimated needs as...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I apologise that I cannot provide the figures as we are a little bit over halfway through. We will be spending more in absolute terms because of the demographic increase but we must stay within a certain current account budget constraint. We must find savings and that is the exercise we will do between now and budget day in October. We will write back to all committee members in this respect.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: Is this the value for money review on small schools initiated by the previous Government?

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: We know who the parents are, so we will be looking for some maintenance payments. I do not want to anticipate what the Cabinet will decide but it is not a question of instant savings from the point of view of the Department. It is a question of whether we are getting value for the money being spent. That is the principle behind it and it is an interdepartmental process set out by the old...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I thank the Deputy for the question and the manner in which it was raised. On the question of whether we are looking at changing the basis for capitation grants, the short answer is that we are not, but I can see why it might warrant being examined. One size fits all is the approach to primary schools, if that is what we are talking about.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: There is a recognition that there are basic operational costs, for which capitation grants are presumed to provide. These include general electricity, water and other things. The minimum size of the school for the purpose of the capitation grant is 60 pupils in notional terms. From memory, there are some 25 schools with 19 schools pupils and the capitation grant they receive is the same as...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: Across all sectors of the public service, the Government is trying to systematically reduce costs by combining the purchasing power of schools to jointly procure services such as electricity through the extra volume that can be brought to the market. Some school boards of management have traditionally had a local supplier in the area and want to maintain and support local business. If, for...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Education and Skills: Vote 27 - Education and Skills (Revised) (13 Jun 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I have a note with me which it might be helpful to deliver to the committee. It should be made clear that not all of the saving options, of which there were 83, identified in the comprehensive expenditure report, or CER, were agreed to be implemented. The CER submitted by the Department in September 2011 contained a very large number of saving options across the education area. The options...