Results 5,061-5,080 of 19,032 for speaker:Ruairi Quinn

Seanad: Education and Training Boards Bill 2012: Report and Final Stages (23 Apr 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I will offer an opinion, which I will have to confirm. I will outline a common sense answer which may not necessarily be the legal answer. If the students are under the age of 18 and in school, somebody needs to represent them in the capacity of a guardian. It may be formal or informal. They may be living with their grandparents because their parents may be abroad working. If there...

Seanad: Education and Training Boards Bill 2012: Report and Final Stages (23 Apr 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: No, I would not think so.

Seanad: Education and Training Boards Bill 2012: Report and Final Stages (23 Apr 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: Debate on these issues has featured, as has already been said, on each stage of the Oireachtas consideration of this Bill and I have listened carefully to comments and suggestions about the composition of the new bodies. On Report Stage in the Dáil I introduced a series of amendments in this area. The Bill now provides that the Minister of the day must specify at least one body that is...

Seanad: Education and Training Boards Bill 2012: Report and Final Stages (23 Apr 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: On Committee Stage I mentioned that there would be consideration of a small number of amendments to the Bill relating to accountability. Amendments Nos. 1 and 2 will essentially ensure that in the transition from VECs to education and training boards, there will be no gap in the obligation to respond to the Committee of Public Accounts on VECs' financial activities. They will require the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teaching Contracts (23 Apr 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: Under the Public Service (Croke Park) Agreement 2010 – 2014, teachers undertook to provide an additional hour per week to allow for a range of essential school activities, such as school planning, continuous professional development, induction, substitution and supervision (including supervision immediately before and after school times), to take place without reducing class...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (23 Apr 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I understand that FÁS do not approve an apprentice to complete on-the-job phases of his/her apprenticeship with a company operating overseas unless the company has a registered office in the Republic of Ireland. However, in limited circumstances, apprentices who emigrate after completing all 7 phases of their apprenticeships, but who have not completed 4 years in employment with a...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Pupil-Teacher Ratio (23 Apr 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: Since September 2012 the combined resources available for learning support (General Allocation Model at Primary) and language support at both primary and second level have been merged into a single simplified allocation process. There are currently over 4,700 such posts allocated to schools at primary level and 777 posts at post primary level. This includes the standard learning/language...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Services Provision (23 Apr 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: The home tuition scheme provides a grant to parents to facilitate the provision of education at home for children who, for a number of reasons such as chronic illness, are unable to attend school. The scheme was extended in recent years to facilitate tuition for children awaiting an educational placement and provide early education intervention for pre-school children with autism. My...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: State Examinations Issues (23 Apr 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: State Examinations Commission has statutory responsibility for operational matters relating to the certificate examinations. The State Examinations Commission operates a scheme of Reasonable Accommodations in the Certificate examinations. Applications for such accommodations are submitted by schools on behalf of their students. Full details of the scheme is available for downloading from...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Services Provision (23 Apr 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: The National Council for Special Education (NCSE), through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), is responsible for processing applications from primary and post primary schools for special educational needs supports including resource teaching and Special Needs Assistant (SNA) support. The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staffing (23 Apr 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: The Government has protected frontline services in schools to the greatest extent possible in the recent budget and there will be no reduction in teacher numbers in primary schools for the 2013/14 school year as a result of the budget. The DEIS scheme for disadvantaged schools is also fully protected with no overall changes to staffing levels or funding as a result of the budget. The...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (23 Apr 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: On 27th March 2013, the school referred to by Deputy was allocated funding on a devolved basis for the provision of two mainstream classrooms. A devolved project allows individual school authorities the means to address their approved accommodation and building priorities with a guaranteed amount of funding and gives them day to day control of their building project. It is a central tenet of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (23 Apr 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: As the Deputy will be aware, in June 2011, I announced that 20 new post-primary schools are to be established in the coming years across a number of locations to meet significantly increasing demographics in those areas. This announcement did not include a proposal to establish a new post-primary school in the area referred to by the Deputy. The Forward Planning Section of my Department will...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Site Acquisitions (23 Apr 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: The process of identifying suitable sites for education purposes takes account of a range of factors, including the demographic analysis produced by my Department, any existing applications for capital investment from schools in the area, the Development Plan for the area and the technical guidance documents issued by my Department regarding school design and site suitability. Given the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teacher Redeployment (23 Apr 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I propose to take Questions Nos. 267 and 268 together. My Department currently operates a number of exchange or re-deployment schemes for teachers. At Primary level a teacher exchange scheme exists whereby a teacher may voluntarily exchange with a teacher in any other school. The minimum period for which an exchange may occur is one year and the maximum is five years. Within the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Eligibility (23 Apr 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: For student grants purposes, students are categorised according to their circumstances either as students dependent on parents or a legal guardian, or as independent mature students. A student may be assessed as an independent mature student if he/she has attained the age of 23 on the 1st of January of the year of first entry to an approved course or of re-entry following a break in studies...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Applications (23 Apr 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I understand from Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI) that, at close of business on 22nd April 2013, 19,462 applications had been refused. If an individual applicant considers that she/he has been unjustly refused a student grant, she/he may appeal, in the first instance, to their awarding body. Where an individual applicant has had an appeal turned down, in writing, by their awarding...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Appeals (23 Apr 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I understand from Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI) that, at close of business on 22nd April 2013, 6,669 appeals had been received by SUSI and 164 of these are awaiting a decision from the appeals officer. SUSI aims to issue appeal determinations as promptly as possible and within the timeframe specified in the Student Support Act, 2011. Where an appeal is turned down in writing by...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Delays (23 Apr 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I understand from Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI) that, at close of business on 22nd April 2013, 1,099 students who have been awarded a grant have yet to receive payment as they have not yet entered their bank account details and/or the college has not yet confirmed their attendance. SUSI is continuing to make payments on a weekly basis to ensure students can get paid their grant as...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (23 Apr 2013)

Ruairi Quinn: I can confirm to the Deputy that in 2011 my Department purchased a site, subject to the granting of planning permission, to construct a new school building for the school referred to by the Deputy. My officials consulted with the planning authority and planning permission has been recently granted for a 16 classroom school. As the Deputy will be aware, in view of the need to ensure that...