Results 161-180 of 4,073 for speaker:Mary Mitchell O'Connor

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) (Amendment) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (5 Dec 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: Section 4 provides for amendments to the functions of QQI, including a specific statutory function for the sharing of information with other bodies such as a Department of State, the Office of the Revenue Commissioners and SOLAS. This amendment modifies this function to align it with legislation in the area of data protection such as GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. This function is...

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) (Amendment) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (5 Dec 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: These amendments will replace the term "investigations" with the term "reviews" within the authority's performance of its functions and that is necessary for the consistency of the terminology within the legislation and to ensure that there can be no misrepresentation or misinterpretation of the terms.

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) (Amendment) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (5 Dec 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: No, it is just to tighten up the wording. We use the word "reviews" earlier and it is to ensure a seamless change.

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) (Amendment) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (5 Dec 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: Section 13 of the Act of 2012 requires that providers facilitate and assist QQI in the performance of its functions, insofar as those functions relate to the functions of that provider. Section 14 enables the authority to make a direction in writing, which a provider shall comply with, requiring that provider to provide information to the authority where it has failed to do so, following a...

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) (Amendment) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (5 Dec 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: I also welcome the teachers who are in the Public Gallery today. I met them briefly earlier and gave them a commitment to meet them again after this debate and to work with everyone to come up with a good solution. I thank them for coming along to the Chamber. As a former teacher, I fully understand the gravity of the situation. The fact that we are so close to Christmas and they have not...

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) (Amendment) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (5 Dec 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: I understand the Senator's points. I thank her for acknowledging that we have tried to address what we felt might be the shortcomings she identified. I cannot accept her amendments, but I accept the initial text was not sufficient in light of the developments in data-protection legislation at national and European level. I am grateful to the Senator for raising this important issue....

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) (Amendment) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (5 Dec 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: Section 8 provides QQI with statutory powers to evaluate a provider's corporate fitness. These provisions will enable QQI to examine the bona fidesof a provider and its capacity to engage, in the round, with quality assurance processes. The powers are to be extended by means of statutory instrument so as to provide for regulatory responsiveness to innovative modes of provision and forms of...

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) (Amendment) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (5 Dec 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: QQI will be sharing data with the Department of Justice and Equality, which is very important in regard to international students who require visas.This will be done in accordance with best practice. The Senator asked about new schools and the fees that are charged, undercutting and if we will have good quality schools. That is the reason I am here today. The purpose of that International...

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) (Amendment) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (5 Dec 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: There is the interim list of eligible programmes, ILEP, recognition and then there is the accreditation and coordination of English language services, ACELS, recognition. The majority of English language schools operate under those accreditations. I hear what the Senator is saying. Currently there are voluntary national schemes. In 2018 there were 88 ACELS recognised schools, now there...

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) (Amendment) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (5 Dec 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: Amendments Nos. 17 and 18 are technical amendments that will provide Quality and Qualifications Ireland, QQI with the discretion to determine when an existing provider must demonstrate its compliance with the criteria established for corporate fitness. The effects of these amendments is twofold. Firstly, it will enable QQI to provide a transition period for existing providers before they...

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) (Amendment) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (5 Dec 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: This is a technical amendment to section 13, to better reflect the structure of the national framework of qualifications, NFQ. The framework is comprised of levels and types of awards. The amendment will ensure that this is appropriately reflected in the legislation.

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) (Amendment) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (5 Dec 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: These are technical amendments that will allow a provider to appeal a decision by QQI should the authority decide to withdraw validation from a programme that it considers dormant.

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) (Amendment) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (5 Dec 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: This amendment is a technical change to the definition of the associative provider.The associated providers are those providers who enter into arrangements with listed awarding bodies to offer programmes leading to their awards. This alteration limits the scope of this legislation to the activity and programme of education and training offered in this State by this class of provider.

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) (Amendment) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (5 Dec 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: These are technical amendments which will allow QQI the flexibility to remove individual awards of listed awarding bodies from the national framework of qualifications, NFQ, where they no longer meet the relevant policies and criteria. I would like to inform the committee that I will be bringing further amendments to this section on Report Stage. This section provides the legislative...

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) (Amendment) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (5 Dec 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: Sections 24 and 25 contain provisions to facilitate the introduction of the international education mark, IEM. The IEM will serve both as a quality mark to promote Irish education to international students and as a regulatory tool to underpin the student immigration system. These amendments will serve to limit the scope of the IEM to those providers and bodies with whom QQI will have a...

Seanad: Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) (Amendment) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (5 Dec 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: I thank the Senators. My officials and I have met Unite the Union. I have deliberated on our meeting and what came up. I have thought a lot about it. I share the concerns of Senators regarding the employment practices in the English language education sector, which have been brought to the fore in the context of the recent closure of Grafton College. We all want an English language...

Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Report Stage (Resumed) (4 Dec 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: Does the Deputy mean "pregnant"?

Apprenticeships: Motion [Private Members] (7 Nov 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: I am delighted that Fianna Fáil has tabled this Private Member's motion. We need to have a national conversation about apprenticeships. While apprenticeships are an exciting option for many young people, they are the Cinderella of career options and are not seen by many young people and their parents as viable or attractive. I am delighted that we are working together to get this...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: DEIS Status (17 Oct 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: I thank the Deputy and hear him clearly but I point out that the 2019 budget saw the largest Vote ever for education of €10.8 billion. To be fair, we must target our resources and that is what we are doing. We have to make sure that the children in most need get the resources they require. As I said earlier, the underlying principle for inclusion in the DEIS school programme is...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: DEIS Status (17 Oct 2018)

Mary Mitchell O'Connor: DEIS plan 2017-----