Results 7,581-7,600 of 19,032 for speaker:Ruairi Quinn

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Fees (9 Oct 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I propose to take Questions Nos. 100, 104 and 201 together. As the Deputies will be aware the student contribution increased from €2,000 to €2,250 for the current academic year. The contribution is paid by the Exchequer in respect of students who qualify under my Department's student grant scheme. Conscious of financial pressures on families, tax relief provisions have been...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Languages Programme (9 Oct 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The Department's language policy, as detailed in the Government's National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy (2011), is that pupils will learn two languages, English and Irish in primary schools. At senior cycle, the languages available include French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese and Arabic, as well as English and Irish. The Post-primary languages Initiative supports the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education and Training Provision (9 Oct 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The Digital Hub Agency (funded by the Department of Communications Energy and Natural Resources) and the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) jointly devised 'Future Creators'. It is an education programme which aims to provide young teenagers with an educational experience through digital media, incorporating diverse elements including 'app' development, coding processes, animation and...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Refurbishment (9 Oct 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: For the past fifteen years the Planning and Building Unit of my Department have been using a process called the DART approach to develop sustainability and energy efficiency in educational buildings. This acronym focuses on four key areas, namely; Design, Awareness, Research and Technology. The policy is informed by the Building Unit Professional and Technical staff, driven by its technical...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Curriculum (9 Oct 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The data requested by the Deputy are as follows for 2011/12 school year, the last year for which complete figures are available, there were 723 recognised post-primary schools of which 582 offered the transition year programme on which 32,673 students were enrolled. This information has been extracted from the returns made by schools to my Department as at 30th September each year.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teacher Recruitment (9 Oct 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: It has been the policy of my Department for some time that only qualified and registered teachers should be employed by schools. This is set out most recently in Circular Letter 31/2011. Current recruitment procedures direct schools to ensure that teachers proposed for appointment to publicly paid posts must be registered with the Teaching Council and have qualifications appropriate to the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: State Examinations Reviews (9 Oct 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I published A Framework for Junior Cycle on 4 October 2012. This document contains details of my plans to reform the junior cycle in post-primary schools. A Framework for Junior Cycle builds upon proposals developed by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment and published in November 2011 under the title, Towards a Framework for Junior Cycle- Innovation and Identity.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Curriculum (9 Oct 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Aistear is Ireland's curriculum framework for children from birth to six years. It reflects recent developments in understanding how children learn and develop in early childhood. These developments include the importance of ensuring a balance between adult-led and child-led activities, as well as the importance of play in children's learning and development from birth to six years. Aistear...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Recognition (9 Oct 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The school in question does not have permanent recognition from my Department. It has provisional recognition from my Department. My Department does not collect information from the school system in relation to the level of voluntary contributions sought by individual schools. My Department's policy is that voluntary contributions by parents are permissible provided it is made absolutely...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Expenditure (9 Oct 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The Deputy will be aware of the very challenging economic environment that forms the backdrop to all decisions relating to the public finances. While the Government has undertaken to protect education spending as much as possible, we are not operating in a vacuum. Despite the fact that there have already been significant reductions in public expenditure, further expenditure consolidation is...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education and Training Boards (9 Oct 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I will be establishing the new Qualifications and Quality Assurance Authority of Ireland (QQAAI) in the coming weeks and from that point providers which currently have their awards made by the Further Education and Training Awards Council (FETAC) or the Higher Education and Training Awards Council (HETAC) will have their awards made by the new body.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teaching Qualifications (9 Oct 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Individuals without recognised qualifications, who were employed in a teaching position or eligible to be employed in a teaching position in a recognised school at the time of the establishment of the Teaching Council in 2006, were deemed registered with the Teaching Council in its first year. Teachers were advised at the time to seek registration with the Council and to ensure that their...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Reform (9 Oct 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The Deputy will be aware that, following agreement in principle by the Government to broaden the current means testing arrangements for student grants by way of inclusion of the value of capital assets, I set up a dedicated implementation group to bring forward detailed proposals for implementation in 2013.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teaching Council of Ireland (9 Oct 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The Employment Control Framework agreed for the Department of Education and Skills covers the period 2010 to 2014 and comprehends staff working in a range of bodies and organisations across the education area, including the Teaching Council. Regardless of funding status, agencies under the aegis of the Department, including the Teaching Council, are required to order and prioritise their...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teachers' Remuneration (9 Oct 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: As I have indicated earlier, measures impacting on the pay of new entrant public servants, including teachers, have to be viewed in the context of the dire financial circumstances which this Government inherited and is working to reverse. The major impact on the pay of new entrant teachers arises from the decision of the previous Government to impose a 10% reduction coupled with...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (9 Oct 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: In the last five years ten major school building projects encountered difficulties which resulted in a tender competition for a replacement contractor. The difficulties encountered on nine of these projects related to contractor insolvencies. The termination of the contractor's obligation to complete the works on the tenth project was due to the contractor's default. There is a bond in place...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Staffing (9 Oct 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The building project referred to by the Deputy was included in the 5 year construction programme announced in March and is scheduled to commence construction in 2013. The stage 2(b) submission was recently approved by my Department and will shortly progress to tender and then construction. However, until the project has been tendered and a contractor appointed it will not be possible to...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Fees (9 Oct 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Under the terms of my Department's Free Fee Schemes the Exchequer meets the cost of tuition fees in respect of eligible students who are pursuing full-time undergraduate courses of study which are a minimum of two years duration in an approved higher education institution. The main conditions of the scheme are that students must be first-time undergraduates, hold inter alia EU/EEA/Swiss...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Fees (9 Oct 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Under the terms of my Department's Free Fee Schemes the exchequer meets the cost of tuition fees in respect of eligible students who are pursuing full-time undergraduate courses of study which are a minimum of two years duration in an approved higher education institution. The main conditions of the scheme are that students must be first-time undergraduates, hold inter alia EU/EEA/Swiss...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Residential Institutions Redress Scheme (9 Oct 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I met with the representatives of the Bethany Home Survivors Group in May 2011. Having reviewed the papers on the Home, and having taken all the circumstances into account, I found no basis to revisit the decision of the previous Government not to include the Home with the Redress Scheme. That remains the position.