Results 12,221-12,240 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton
- Leaders' Questions (22 Jan 2015)
Joan Burton: She is wrong in that regard.
- Leaders' Questions (22 Jan 2015)
Joan Burton: The newly appointed Fingal county manager has brought forward an extremely ambitious programme, starting with the identification of the sites and areas in Swords, Blanchardstown and the wider Dublin 15 area where new social housing can be built. That is a positive development which will result in many thousands of families getting the homes they want.
- Leaders' Questions (22 Jan 2015)
Joan Burton: Rent supplement is a critical support for 75,000 individuals and families who are housed through the scheme. The protocol established last June is working very well on a case-by-case basis.
- Leaders' Questions (22 Jan 2015)
Joan Burton: I have had the privilege of visiting one to two schools per week - not just in my current job but since I became a Deputy - because one of my abiding interests is education. I go into very well-off schools - fee-paying schools. Deputy McDonald would be familiar with them. What I find is that the students have a collaborative learning experience. Often when I go into a poorer community, I...
- Leaders' Questions (22 Jan 2015)
Joan Burton: Social housing is a key priority for this Government. We have set out an additional €2.2 billion in the budget for 2015 and the next three years to provide social housing. As the Deputy may be aware, particularly in Dublin West, housing construction has actually recommenced. This will help huge numbers of people interested in buying a starter family home on an affordable mortgage...
- Leaders' Questions (22 Jan 2015)
Joan Burton: Similarly, nursing is a graduate profession which involves significant training and investment by the State and the individuals involved in their education and training. There is strong underlying support for the principle of professional registration, but when the professional registration structures were put in place, it was made clear that the board would be independent and that it would...
- Leaders' Questions (22 Jan 2015)
Joan Burton: -----but following discussions with the Department of Health in 2013, it was agreed that a one-off sum of €1.6 million would be granted by the Department to cover costs in 2013-14 on the basis that the board would review its overheads and increase its income in 2015 to meet its commitments under the legislation. The board has, therefore, been significantly assisted by the Department...
- Leaders' Questions (22 Jan 2015)
Joan Burton: This issue can be resolved by further discussions and negotiations.
- Leaders' Questions (22 Jan 2015)
Joan Burton: That is the appropriate thing to do because the principle of registration is important.
- Leaders' Questions (22 Jan 2015)
Joan Burton: For a long period I was a member of the TUI because I taught for a lengthy number of years as a senior lecturer in Dublin Institute of Technology. As somebody who set and marked my own examinations-----
- Leaders' Questions (22 Jan 2015)
Joan Burton: -----and also took part in administering the examination structures of a number of the professional accounting bodies, notwithstanding the Deputy's welcome commitment to reform, Deputy Mary Lou McDonald is mistaken on this issue.
- Leaders' Questions (22 Jan 2015)
Joan Burton: As a country, if we are to progress and get all of the people who lost their jobs back to work-----
- Leaders' Questions (22 Jan 2015)
Joan Burton: -----one of the essential ingredients will be to give children the best education we can provide. That means implementing critical reforms which bring into the classroom at second level collaboration and work both by the individual and class groups that will allow children to be creative, participants and leaders in their own learning process.
- Leaders' Questions (22 Jan 2015)
Joan Burton: The Deputy was previously a principal. Book and rote learning had an essential part to play in education, but it is not the only way for people to get an education and develop educationally. When Deputy Ruairí Quinn became Minister for Education and Skills, he set out to improve literacy and numeracy in primary schools.
- Leaders' Questions (22 Jan 2015)
Joan Burton: He introduced reform which was not popular with everybody.
- Leaders' Questions (22 Jan 2015)
Joan Burton: It was assessed in the recent publication of the results of that reform. Anybody who has the opportunity, as I do all the time, to go into wonderful new and older schools that have been refurbished by the Government throughout the country-----
- Leaders' Questions (22 Jan 2015)
Joan Burton: -----will see at primary level the excitement in learning and developing and learning to reason and critique, not simply learn for an examination.
- Leaders' Questions (22 Jan 2015)
Joan Burton: Deputy Mary Lou McDonald's vision for education would lead to poorer outcomes. The country needs educational reform.
- Leaders' Questions (22 Jan 2015)
Joan Burton: The teacher unions need to engage in discussions. The Minister has said it will be a two part system - 60% will be addressed through the traditional examination which Sinn Féin wants to see as the cornerstone of the system, while 40% will take into account what we have all learned will stand to children when they come out of primary and secondary school and enter the wider world. The...
- Leaders' Questions (22 Jan 2015)
Joan Burton: On 17 September 2014, the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland, NMBI, voted to increase the annual registration fee for nurses and midwives, from €100 to €150 for 2015. I agree this is a large increase, particularly at a time when the danger to the eurozone is not inflation but the risk of deflation. The staff associations have undertaken a campaign against paying the new...