Results 1,901-1,920 of 2,735 for speaker:Marie Louise O'Donnell
- Seanad: Order of Business (30 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: The Minister for Education and Skills.
- Seanad: Order of Business (30 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: Senator O'Brien is so good.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: It is piled on within three months of graduation.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: Regarding Senator Power's comments, does the Department have an opinion on the banks' disgraceful behaviour in respect of postgraduate fees? They sell loans at certain interest rates to students, some of whom are taking long courses in, for example, engineering, medicine, accountancy and veterinary medicine, but then leave them high and dry the minute they qualify and increase their interest...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: What is happening is appalling. This does not just relate to graduate medicine and engineering or people with long-stay education ahead of them. It will become a larger problem. Parents are learning that students must borrow. There was a time when they did not need to because their parents paid or money was available. American students all pay for their own education. They all borrow...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: Surely it is possible to do so.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: That is how it should be.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: Will the Minister indicate how much we are spending on reform of the junior cycle?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: I am sorry, but I missed what the Minister said. The staff cost of the NCCA is €4 million for a total of 33 staff. How much money has been spent on reform of the junior cycle to date?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: Is the Minister saying that reform of the junior cycle was entirely contained in the office with the 33 staff?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: I know, but I am asking the question of how much money has been spent on the reform of the junior cycle to date.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: I am aware of that.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: Given the thousands of impasses with which the reform of the junior cycle has been met, there must be a cost implication for the Department of Education and Skills. I want to know what was the cost. The process is choking.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: That was expenditure on the NCCA.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: That is an incredibly positive answer, when one thinks of a country that has 4.6 million people. It is a major factor in why we are around this table. It is something that we should talk about more readily. I know we have many problems, but it is huge, how we take education so magnificently seriously.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: It might be something that the Minister could use when she is batting. But the other two are more serious, dig-down questions.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: I would like to see both of those - the cost and the evaluation - in whatever form is possible.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: I would like to see the evaluation and how the strategy is being evaluated.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: How much is the NCCA costing? It is costing millions, is it not?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: This is very serious, because I am getting generalised answers, which the Minister may be right in giving me, but there is an impasse around this. A lot of money was put into the NCCA. There were many votes against it at local level, and I think that a national curriculum-----