Results 11,201-11,220 of 19,032 for speaker:Ruairi Quinn

Written Answers — Higher Education Grants: Higher Education Grants (17 Nov 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: The processing and payment of student grants is carried out by local grant awarding authorities – VECs and local authorities. In the circumstances, it will be necessary for the student in question to contact his grant awarding authority to ascertain the position regarding his grant application.

Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (17 Nov 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: I can confirm to the Deputy that there is one retired secretary general currently employed by a State agency under the aegis of my Department. The individual concerned took up a post in the Higher Education and Training Awards Council in January 2002 following open competition. The officer concerned has no entitlement to an additional public service pension in respect of this position with...

Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (17 Nov 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: My Department does not have any contractual arrangements with employment agencies for staffing services. The Public Appointments Service (PAS) is an independent body established under the Public Service Management Act 2004 to provide recruitment, assessment and selection services for the Civil Service. My Department engages PAS when required to recruit administrative and non-administrative...

Written Answers — Special Educational Needs: Special Educational Needs (16 Nov 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: Section 29 of the Education Act provides for an appeal to be taken against a refusal to enrol a child in a recognised school, however, such appeals do not consider the level of supports or resources applying to schools. The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible for allocating Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) to schools. A Section 29 appeal for this child, who was...

Written Answers — Higher Education Participation: Higher Education Participation (16 Nov 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: Ireland currently performs very strongly in terms of participation in higher education and has the highest tertiary attainment rate among 25-34 year olds in the European Union. Projections published by my Department in June of this year show that the demand for higher education in Ireland is set to grow by 62% in the next twenty years. While welcome, the scale of projected growth will...

Written Answers — Institutes of Technology: Institutes of Technology (16 Nov 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: The Government has published details of capital funding available to my Department for the period 2012-2016. The level of funding available for Exchequer investment in higher education infrastructure provides only for funding projects where legally binding contractual commitments exist. While a master plan has been agreed for the Grangegorman project, work to date on the project has not...

Written Answers — Special Educational Needs: Special Educational Needs (16 Nov 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible for allocating Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) to schools in accordance with my Department's policy. Over the summer, the NCSE has advised all mainstream schools of their SNA allocations in respect of valid applications received by 17th June. The NCSE retained 475 out of the total 10,575 SNA posts available in order to allocate...

Written Answers — School Curriculum: School Curriculum (16 Nov 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: Revised Leaving Certificate syllabi were submitted by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment in relation to the four Leaving Certificate technology subjects in 2004. Two of these subjects, Technology and Design and Graphic Communications were introduced in September 2007. The remaining two subjects, Leaving Certificate Engineering Technology and Architectural Technology are...

Written Answers — Third Level Charges: Third Level Charges (16 Nov 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: In recognition of the financial pressures that the student contribution may place on families, my Department, through the Higher Education Authority requested higher education institutions to consider putting in place arrangements under which a student may opt to pay the student contribution in two instalments in a given academic year. While I understand from the HEA that a small number of...

Written Answers — Pupil-Teacher Ratio: Pupil-Teacher Ratio (16 Nov 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: The Pupil Teacher Ratio is compiled by dividing the total number of pupils by the total number of allocated teaching posts. For 2010/2011 the PTR at primary level was 15.7 and at second level it was 13.6. The number of mainstream pupils divided by the number of mainstream class teachers is referred to as the Average Class Size. In 2010/11 the Average Class Size at first level was 23.9....

Written Answers — Proposed Legislation: Proposed Legislation (16 Nov 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: Work is progressing on the drafting of the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Bill. I had a very constructive meeting with groups representing survivors of residential institutional abuse on 22nd July last, when we discussed the Government's approach to the proposed Statutory Fund to support the needs of victims of residential institutional abuse. Attendees at that meeting raised a...

Written Answers — Special Educational Needs: Special Educational Needs (16 Nov 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: I wish to advise the Deputy that the staffing of special schools is determined by reference to the recommendations outlined in the Report of the Special Education Review Committee, 1993, also known as the SERC Report. The pupil to teacher staffing ratios in Special Schools range from 6:1 to 11:1, depending on the category of disability. The allocation of Special Needs Assistants per special...

Written Answers — Vocational Education Committees: Vocational Education Committees (16 Nov 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: I propose to take Questions Nos. 28, 38 and 46 together. In arriving at my decision in relation to the location of headquarters of the merged VECs, I considered a range of factors including the need to ensure that the location of a VEC headquarters will, to the greatest extent possible, facilitate staff redeployment under a redeployment scheme within the context of the Croke Park Agreement...

Written Answers — School Curriculum: School Curriculum (16 Nov 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: I am committed to the continuation of the Leaving Certificate Applied Programme. The Leaving Certificate Applied (LCA) was introduced to schools in 1995, designed to address the needs of students who would not be progressing directly to higher education, and for whom the established Leaving Certificate is unsuitable. The rate of early school leaving at that time, as evidenced in the 1996...

Written Answers — Third Level Grants: Third Level Grants (16 Nov 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: The issue to which the Deputy refers relates to the change in the residence requirement in the student grant schemes for the 2010/11 academic year. From the start of that academic year, the residence requirement to be met by a student in order to qualify for the maintenance grant was changed from a one-year requirement to have been living in the State directly prior to attending college, to...

Written Answers — Schools Building Projects: Schools Building Projects (16 Nov 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: The Deputy will be aware that the Government's Medium Term Infrastructure and Capital Investment Framework was published on the 10th of November. It includes an allocation for education capital of just over €2.2bn over the five years of the plan - an average annual allocation of just over €440m. Total enrolment in both primary and post-primary schools is expected to grow by almost 70,000...

Written Answers — School Refurbishment: School Refurbishment (16 Nov 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: I announced last Thursday that a minor works grant is being made available for the school year 2011/2012 in the amount of €28m. This grant will be paid to primary schools in the coming weeks.

Written Answers — Departmental Properties: Departmental Properties (16 Nov 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: Sports complexes attached to a small number of Community and Comprehensive Schools, including the school to which the Deputy refers, were established in the early 1970s on the basis that they would operate on a self-financing basis. In recent times, the complex at the school in question has experienced some difficulty in matching its operating costs and its income. Accordingly, the Board of...

Written Answers — School Curriculum: School Curriculum (16 Nov 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: I have endorsed the broad thrust of the proposals on junior cycle reform submitted to me by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment in October 2011 following an extensive consultation process. What is proposed is a general framework which is a first step in the reform process, and the detailed implications have yet to be considered. The question of whether science will be...

Written Answers — In-service Training: In-service Training (16 Nov 2011)

Ruairi Quinn: The Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST) National Coordinator post for support for the Leaving Cert Applied (LCA) programme in post-primary schools was vacated at the start of this school year. Given recent changing priorities and developments in relation to continuing professional development (CPD), notably my Department's literacy and numeracy strategy, as well as pressure...