Results 101-120 of 743 for speaker:Jim D'Arcy

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Jan 2012)

Jim D'Arcy: When the Mahon tribunal reports, people will be telling Fianna Fáil get the hell out altogether.

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Jan 2012)

Jim D'Arcy: Enough is enough. The current Fianna Fáil leader, Deputy Martin, will be telling Mr. Bertie Ahern to get out altogether.

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Jan 2012)

Jim D'Arcy: I do indeed. I commend the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, on his attempts to introduce badly needed reforms in the education system. I welcome the review of the implications of budget measures in some DEIS schools. Senator Bacik is correct that some areas are stigmatised in this debate on DEIS schools.

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Jan 2012)

Jim D'Arcy: I support Senator O'Brien's call for the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, to come to the House for a debate on education. It is not entirely accurate to say that four-teacher schools will lose a full time learning support teacher. Some schools were not entitled to a learning support teacher. This entitlement was based not on the number of teachers but the number of pupils...

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Jan 2012)

Jim D'Arcy: The figure is 105 pupils for a boys' school, 105 for a mixed school and 110 for a girls' school. This is now being changed to five hours per teacher. I previously raised in this House, in a trade context, the need for Ireland to recognise the National Transitional Council in Libya. Our failure to do so is affecting Irish businesses trying to trade in Libya. When I raised this issue...

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Jan 2012)

Jim D'Arcy: I ask the Deputy Leader to take up with the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the need for Ireland to recognise the National Transitional Council in Libya.

Seanad: Order of Business (25 Jan 2012)

Jim D'Arcy: Notwithstanding our present difficulties, which are great, as a respected member of the international community, from time to time we should consider other matters. In that context, I wish to congratulate the Holocaust Education Trust of Ireland and Mémorial de la Shoah in Paris on the launch of its exhibition, The Holocaust in Europe, which was launched on Monday evening in the Department...

Seanad: Education (Amendment) Bill 2012: Second Stage (25 Jan 2012)

Jim D'Arcy: Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire chuig an Seanad arís. I thank the Minister for outlining the provisions in this complex Bill. I agree with much of what Senator Power has said in respect of what may be teased out in the debate on later Stages. In that context I shall refer to three or four issues, the first of which appears to be the imbedding of unqualified teachers into the system. As a...

Seanad: Order of Business (31 Jan 2012)

Jim D'Arcy: A doctor came home one day to find the archbishop of Paris in bed with his wife. He took the archbishop's cassock-----

Seanad: Order of Business (31 Jan 2012)

Jim D'Arcy: Yes. The doctor put on the cassock, walked to the window and began blessing the people below in the square. The archbishop told him to come away from the window, for he looked ridiculous. The doctor replied that since the archbishop was performing his functions, he would perform the archbishop's. I refer to this anecdote in the context of an issue of social protection.

Seanad: Order of Business (31 Jan 2012)

Jim D'Arcy: Social protection. There has been little improvement in the time taken to process medical card applications since the centralisation of that function took place. We are told it should take 15 days to obtain a medical card if everything is in order. However, I have been contacted by many people who have experienced delays. Most recently, I heard of an application that was submitted in...

Seanad: Education (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (31 Jan 2012)

Jim D'Arcy: It was stated in this House a couple of weeks ago that a person with two watches will never know the correct time. The Minister is, through enactment of this legislation, clarifying for schools that the HSE provides these services. I cannot support the amendment and must side with the Minister. As someone who has worked as a teacher for the past 35 years, I know how the system works in...

Seanad: Education (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (31 Jan 2012)

Jim D'Arcy: Like most of the previous speakers, I can see the need, very occasionally, for a decision to be made where things are being held up because people are unable to come to an agreement. As a result of this change, would it be possible for the panel, for example, or the figures for the following year to come out that bit earlier, particularly for the first year, to give the authorities a little...

Seanad: Education (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (31 Jan 2012)

Jim D'Arcy: I am delighted with the Minister's statement that he would be prepared to go into consultation under an IR framework. I asked that question of him the other day but did not like to ask it again. I am very pleased. As regards ethos, when I was applying for my first job as a principal many years ago, I was brought before a Sanhedrin of three respectable, strong priests. They asked me if I...

Seanad: Education (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (31 Jan 2012)

Jim D'Arcy: Very good, Senator.

Seanad: Education (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (31 Jan 2012)

Jim D'Arcy: I take the opposite view to Senator Mullen on this matter; perhaps I do not have as benign a view of human nature. Just as a prospective hanging will concentrate the mind, this provision may be of assistance in encouraging people to reach agreement. I have seen cases where 20 classes in a particular area will be without teachers on 1 September because the schools in question will not...

Seanad: Education (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (31 Jan 2012)

Jim D'Arcy: This is very much like what we have discussed already, but I take the point that there is a slight difference. Rather than weakening boards of management, if this is done right, in the context of the Minister's reference to agreement and consultation, it could empower them. In most cases, boards of management are not sufficiently consulted in the filling of vacancies in schools. In the...

Seanad: Education (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (31 Jan 2012)

Jim D'Arcy: I have never come across difficulties involving teachers who remained on the redeployment panel for a long period and who were eventually taken on by schools. I am extremely interested in what Senator Norris had to say and I await the Minister's response to him. Did I understand the Senator to have stated that he attended two schools, that one of these was good and the other bad and that...

Seanad: Education (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (31 Jan 2012)

Jim D'Arcy: I suggest the teaching of children by unqualified teachers will not be as good as teaching by qualified teachers, just as the worst room in the best hotel is better than the best room in the worst hotel. However, from time to time it is impossible to find a qualified teacher, notwithstanding the number of young teachers who are unemployed, and it is more difficult at certain times of the...

Seanad: Education (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (31 Jan 2012)

Jim D'Arcy: I went the wrong way. I was confusing the Senator with the Chair.