Results 1,441-1,460 of 2,735 for speaker:Marie Louise O'Donnell

Seanad: Order of Business (23 Sep 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: The Senator can be at the aside but behind the curtain.

Seanad: Order of Business (23 Sep 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: I am shaking in my boots.

Seanad: Order of Business (23 Sep 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: My remarks were very clear.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: State Examinations Commission: Engagement with Chair-Designate. (24 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: I welcome Mr. Burke. I congratulate him on his appointment and wish him the best of luck in his great job. I am a great believer in the leaving certificate, just as I was in the "inter", as we called it. The leaving certificate programme has served the country and families very well. It has been kind, good and expansive. It has also been highly developmental. Mr. Burke made a point...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: State Examinations Commission: Engagement with Chair-Designate. (24 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: He is obviously the best boy in the school.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: State Examinations Commission: Engagement with Chair-Designate. (24 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: State Examinations Commission: Engagement with Chair-Designate. (24 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: Could there not be balance?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: State Examinations Commission: Engagement with Chair-Designate. (24 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: Languages.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: State Examinations Commission: Engagement with Chair-Designate. (24 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: Yes and no.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: State Examinations Commission: Engagement with Chair-Designate. (24 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: Yes, but not necessarily ability and quality.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: State Examinations Commission: Engagement with Chair-Designate. (24 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: Why would Mr. Burke not consider that allocating those 25 points to a language of choice, be it German, Spanish, French, Russian or whatever, or to an arts subject on the leaving certificate programme, would be equally beneficial? He could argue for a balance, that we could keep incentivising those taking higher level mathematics, but we could also do the same for other choices. The...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: State Examinations Commission: Engagement with Chair-Designate. (24 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: It has not. Where are the studies that show that? The Senator cannot say that, because we have no studies to show that. We had an uptake. Now we have a downtake and now we have a fail-pass take and a pass-fail honours take. We have a pile of takes on it now. Therefore, it cannot be said it has worked brilliantly because it had an uptake. Ask the University of Limerick. It has done a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: State Examinations Commission: Engagement with Chair-Designate. (24 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: It is. Everything is within the commission's remit. It is and it is not.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: State Examinations Commission: Engagement with Chair-Designate. (24 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: The State board would come with minds, not just with pens.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: State Examinations Commission: Engagement with Chair-Designate. (24 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: Getting 30 points in honours maths is equivalent to 55 points in pass maths. I have never heard rubbish like it. It is not a qualitative argument and could not possibly be. You would get a percentage for writing your name. This is the gradation system and is part of the proposal.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: State Examinations Commission: Engagement with Chair-Designate. (24 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: That is not right. It needs to be rethought. I accept Mr. Burke's thinking on this, but I believe he could influence policy as chair of the commission. Obviously the Department sets its boundaries, but people are there to influence, see, advise, enlarge and extend these. They are not just there with a pen-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: State Examinations Commission: Engagement with Chair-Designate. (24 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: -----as Senator Craughwell is here with his phone.

Seanad: Master Plan for the City of Dublin: Motion (24 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: No it is not - it is worse.

Seanad: Master Plan for the City of Dublin: Motion (24 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: He is not here.

Seanad: Master Plan for the City of Dublin: Motion (24 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Ann Phelan. This is my first time to have the privilege of contributing to a debate with her in this House. In regard to Senator Ó Murchú's comments, if I saw a planning officer I would run and take cover, probably under a duvet in a bedsit he or she had planned. I spend some time in a different guise travelling around the country from...