Results 961-980 of 16,057 for speaker:Mary Coughlan
- Written Answers — Schools Building Projects: Schools Building Projects (10 Nov 2010)
Mary Coughlan: I can confirm that the school to which the Deputy refers has applied to my Department for large scale capital funding for a new school building. In accordance with the published criteria for large scale building projects, the project for this school has been assigned a Band 2 rating. Information in respect of the current school building programme along with all assessed applications for...
- Written Answers — Schools Building Projects: Schools Building Projects (10 Nov 2010)
Mary Coughlan: I wish to advise the Deputy that all applications for capital funding from all categories of recognised schools are assessed in the Planning and Building Unit of my Department and assigned an appropriate band rating on the basis of need. The priority attaching to individual projects is determined by published prioritisation criteria, which were formulated following consultation with the...
- Written Answers — Teaching Qualifications: Teaching Qualifications (10 Nov 2010)
Mary Coughlan: As the Deputy may be aware, the recognition of teacher qualifications in this State is now a matter for the Teaching Council, the body with statutory responsibility for establishing and maintaining standards in the teaching profession. Accordingly, I am sure you will appreciate that it would not be appropriate for me to intervene in individual cases. It is my understanding that the...
- Written Answers — Departmental Expenditure: Departmental Expenditure (10 Nov 2010)
Mary Coughlan: Expenditure on the purchase of prefabricated buildings in County Clare in respect of the years 2008, 2009 and 2010 is as follows: 2008 - â¬558,684 2009 - â¬218,104 2010 - No expenditure incurred to date.
- Written Answers — Special Educational Needs: Special Educational Needs (10 Nov 2010)
Mary Coughlan: The Deputy will be aware that 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 appeal referred to by the Deputy is currently being considered by my Department and a decision will issue to the family shortly.
- Written Answers — Schools Building Projects: Schools Building Projects (10 Nov 2010)
Mary Coughlan: I wish to advise the Deputy that officials in my Department have been advised by Fingal County Council that terms have been agreed between the various parties concerned and the Council in relation to the acquisition of a site in the Rush/Lusk area. Fingal County Council have advised my Department that the matter is with the respective legal advisors for completion of the conveyancing...
- Written Answers — School Placement: School Placement (10 Nov 2010)
Mary Coughlan: The Forward Planning Section of my Department is in the process of analysing all areas in the country in order to determine the level of additional provision which will be required at both primary and post-primary level up to 2017. Overall post-primary requirements in the area in South County Dublin referred to by the Deputy, including the case for the provision of a new second level all...
- Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (10 Nov 2010)
Mary Coughlan: 21 staff from my Department availed of the Special Civil Service Incentive Career Break Scheme 2009. The net savings are expected to be approximately â¬1,920,000. This figure is based on salary savings plus employers PRSI saving less the incentive payments made to the relevant staff under the Scheme.
- Written Answers — Departmental Expenditure: Departmental Expenditure (9 Nov 2010)
Mary Coughlan: The Deputy will appreciate that I am not in a position to comment on the specifics of budgetary matters in advance of its formal announcement. The Deputy will be aware however that the â¬8.59 billion current expenditure allocation for my Department for 2010 accounts for some 16% of Government gross voted current expenditure (the third largest after Social Protection and Health). Almost 75%...
- Written Answers — Ministerial Travel: Ministerial Travel (9 Nov 2010)
Mary Coughlan: The Government recently published its five year international education strategy, Investing in Global Relationships, which outlines the strategic importance of international students to the Irish economy, and to long-term business relationships with our current and future trading partners. The USA remains the single most important country of origin for international students in Irish higher...
- Written Answers — Departmental Expenditure: Departmental Expenditure (9 Nov 2010)
Mary Coughlan: The Exchequer expenditure figures for October 2010 were published last week. Education capital expenditure of â¬456m (including â¬75m Capital carryover) is running â¬102m behind profile at present. The school building budget is less than â¬50million behind profile. The substantial reduction in construction prices has meant that my Department is achieving greater value for taxpayers'...
- Written Answers — Programme for Government: Programme for Government (9 Nov 2010)
Mary Coughlan: The Renewed Programme for Government was agreed in October 2009 and significant progress has been made since then in delivering on the twenty-seven commitments contained in the programme relating to my Department. My Department has a significant role to play in relation to another eleven commitments that are the lead responsibility of other Government Departments. The programme is intended to...
- Written Answers — Departmental Reports: Departmental Reports (9 Nov 2010)
Mary Coughlan: While the Cromien Report contained a wide range of recommendations it is important to stress that the report was discursive in nature and in some instances presented a range of options for further consideration. For this reason defining the precise number of recommendations is not a clear cut task but it would be fair to say that there are in the order of 80 recommendations and my...
- Written Answers — Vocational Education Committees: Vocational Education Committees (9 Nov 2010)
Mary Coughlan: The Government has decided to reduce the overall number of VECs from 33 to 16 and to merge particular city and or county VECs. Implementation of these changes will be carried out by officials of my Department working directly with the VECs and other stakeholders. This project will have a timeframe for implementation of approximately 18 months. Many of the detailed aspects of the...
- Written Answers — School Staffing: School Staffing (9 Nov 2010)
Mary Coughlan: The Deputy will appreciate that the preparation of the Budget is carried out on a strictly confidential basis and as a result it would not be appropriate for me to comment specifically on this matter in advance of the formal announcements involved. The Government has made it clear that difficult decisions will be necessary across the broad spectrum of public expenditure in order to secure the...
- Written Answers — Schools Building Projects: Schools Building Projects (9 Nov 2010)
Mary Coughlan: I can confirm that the school to which the Deputy refers applied to my Department for large scale capital funding for an extension. In accordance with the published criteria for large scale building projects, the project for this school has been assigned a Band 2 rating. Information in respect of the current school building programme along with all assessed applications for major capital...
- Written Answers — School Staffing: School Staffing (9 Nov 2010)
Mary Coughlan: The Deputy may be aware that the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has published its report on the Review of Special Needs Assistant (SNA) Allocation to Schools April 2009 â March 2010 on its website www.ncse.ie. The NSCE has since carried out a number of further reviews of SNA allocation of schools, bringing the total number of schools reviewed as at September 2010 to 3,056....
- Written Answers — Schools Building Projects: Schools Building Projects (9 Nov 2010)
Mary Coughlan: I can confirm to the Deputy that there was a significant reorganisation of the Planning and Building Unit of my Department in 2008. This reorganisation involved the development of expertise in relation to forward planning of future school accommodation needs, the acquisition and implementation of a Geographic Information System, the development of an inventory of school accommodation, the...
- Written Answers — On-line Text Books: On-line Text Books (9 Nov 2010)
Mary Coughlan: I support the provision of digital content for schools including the availability of text books on-line for both primary and post primary schools. As the Deputy will be aware, learning related digital content can take several forms such as content created by publishing companies for use in schools, learning content available on the national education portal site Scoilnet and content created...
- Written Answers — Pupil-Teacher Ratio: Pupil-Teacher Ratio (9 Nov 2010)
Mary Coughlan: The criteria used for the allocation of teachers to schools is published annually on my Department's website. In terms of the position at individual school level the key factor for determining the level of resources provided by my Department is the pupil enrolment at the 30 September of each year. While the staffing schedule allocates on the basis of an average number of pupils each...