Results 7,821-7,840 of 19,032 for speaker:Ruairi Quinn

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Budget 2013: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (19 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I take account of that observation.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Budget 2013: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (19 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Including increments, basic pay amounts to 72% of what primary school teachers are paid. Qualifications allowances amount to 7%, post of responsibility allowances amount to 5%, supervision substitution allowances amount to 3% and substitution for things like maternity leave amounts to-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Budget 2013: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (19 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Sorry; this is the breakdown of the overall spend. I can make these figures available to members. They make more sense on paper and we will only take up valuable time now going through them.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Budget 2013: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (19 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: On the subject of special needs assistants, we are undertaking a major review of the whole area of special needs education for the first time since 1993. We are looking at the breakdown in the allocation of time for resource teachers and special needs teachers, as well as the role of the SNA. It is time to review it and the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, and the section...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Budget 2013: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (19 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I will try to go through this as quickly as possible and give factual responses. Basic pay for primary schools, as distinct from increments, is 72% of expenditure, and it is the same for school teachers. Where we will go with this is set in the context of a new pay agreement, the second Croke Park agreement. In the Civil Service, one comes in at a recruitment grade of executive officer...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Budget 2013: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (19 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: One could have a household next door where the person, in terms of income, is in the same situation yet has paid the tax.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Budget 2013: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (19 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I am addressing the issue but members can ask me additional questions in their own time.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Budget 2013: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (19 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Let me respond. Yesterday morning was the first time that I heard about the matter. The members have heard the answer that I gave and I am not resiling from that response today. There is a new system called the Student Universal Support System, SUSI. The legislation to facilitate it was introduced by my predecessor and the City of Dublin VEC won the contract to administer it. I am happy...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Budget 2013: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (19 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I shall return to the points raised by Deputy Jonathan O'Brien. The sum of €77 million is additional moneys that I must find. Any changes that we make in the education budget in December will have an impact in September 2013 and for the following academic year. If a reduction is made by savings, we can only collect one third of it in 2013. Any changes I make in December will...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Budget 2013: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (19 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: If it is not working then I ask the Senator to bring the instance to my attention and we can contact the publishers.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Budget 2013: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (19 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Should we be talking about a book lending scheme or getting the intellectual copyright of a lot of the stuff to download it for free to whatever device a student uses?We are in a Gutenberg moment where devices will change. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked me other questions about fee-paying schools. The free voluntary scheme is what it says on the tin. All second level schools charged fees...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Budget 2013: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (19 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Yes. Please tell me to shut up when I speak too much.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Budget 2013: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (19 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I thank the Deputies for their questions and comments. With regard to third level fees, the so-called student charge, which has been rebranded for what it is, was €2,000 when the Government came into office. It was increased by €250 last year and will increase again by the same amount, to a maximum of €3,000. The revenue from increasing it by €250 this year...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Budget 2013: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (19 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I will have to get a full briefing on that across the country. It is not unreasonable that people who are seeking support from the taxpayer pay their contribution to the tax. This would not have arisen had a campaign not been launched not to pay the charge. It is a condition of the memorandum of understanding with the troika, upon whom we depend to get the money to run the education...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Budget 2013: Discussion with Minister for Education and Skills (19 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I thank the joint committee for giving me an opportunity to engage in this discussion. I acknowledge the presence of the new Fianna Fáil spokesperson on education, Deputy Charlie McConalogue. I look forward to working with him and Deputy Jonathan O'Brien of Sinn Féin. If they would like to receive a briefing or any information from the Department of Education and Skills in their...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Staffing (19 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: I understand the Deputy is referring to the General Allocation Model (GAM) of additional teaching supports which are allocated to all Primary schools to cater for children with high incidence special educational needs. As I previously advised the Deputy, in response to his Parliamentary Questions of 25th January, 2012 and 19th July, 2012, differing pupil teacher ratios are applied under the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Eligibility (19 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The decision on eligibility for new student grant applications from the 2012/13 academic year is a matter for the new centralised grant awarding authority, SUSI (Student Universal Support Ireland). The basis on which the income of self employed persons is determined has not changed with the introduction of the new centralised grant awarding authority. In the case where an accounting year...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Eligibility (19 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: The decision on eligibility for new student grant applications is a matter for the central grant awarding authority SUSI (Student Universal Support Ireland). The Deputy will appreciate that in the absence of all of the relevant details that would be contained in an individual's application in relation to means, residency, nationality and previous academic attainment, it would not be possible...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Contracts (19 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Under the Schools Broadband Access Programme the Department provides for the supply of internet connectivity for all primary schools that wish to avail of this service. All contracts under the Schools Broadband Access Programme were recently re-tendered. As a result of this the number of service providers has been expanded from 6 to 13 and this should lead to improvements in the quality of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (19 Sep 2012)

Ruairi Quinn: Due to competing demands on my Department's capital budget, imposed by the need to prioritise the limited funding available for the provision of additional school accommodation to meet increasing demographic requirements, it was not possible to include the project referred to by the Deputy in the five year construction programme. As the Deputy is aware, schools which have not been included...