Results 501-520 of 3,673 for speaker:Ciarán Cannon
- Written Answers — School Transport: School Transport (5 Jul 2011)
Ciarán Cannon: My Department is co-operating fully in the development of practical initiatives, led by the Department of Transport, to promote coordination of State supported transport services such as school transport, rural transport and the Health Service Executive transport services. Bus Ãireann which operates the school transport scheme on behalf of this Department is involved in this process. My...
- Written Answers — School Transport: School Transport (5 Jul 2011)
Ciarán Cannon: I propose to take Questions Nos. 253 and 254 together. The changes relating to the Primary School Transport Scheme derive from decisions of the previous Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government to implement recommendations in the School Transport Value for Money review and the need to obtain savings under the four year national recovery plan. The decisions announced cover the uniform application...
- Written Answers — School Transport: School Transport (5 Jul 2011)
Ciarán Cannon: Bus Ãireann which operates the school transport schemes, on behalf of my Department, has provided the following figures in relation to your query:- In the 2008/09 school year 1,719 primary and 1,863 post primary pupils availed of school transport services in County Offaly. In 2009/10 the figures were 1,679 primary and 1,658 post primary and in 2010/11 the numbers were 1,566 primary and...
- Seanad: Ambulance Service (5 Jul 2011)
Ciarán Cannon: I am taking this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly. I thank the Senator for raising the matter. The Minister announced yesterday that an inquiry is to be set up into the events relating to the case of a 14 year old girl from Leitrim who lost an opportunity for a liver transplant due a failure in patient transportation facilities. The...
- Seanad: Ambulance Service (5 Jul 2011)
Ciarán Cannon: I understand it will be made available as quickly as possible to ensure the services which were required in this instance will be available in the future.
- Seanad: Irish Sign Language (5 Jul 2011)
Ciarán Cannon: I am taking this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairà Quinn. I thank the Senator for raising this issue as it gives me an opportunity to clarify the position on Irish sign language, ISL. First, I wish to clarify for the Senator that section 2 of the Official Languages Act 2003 states that "the official languages" of the State are...
- Seanad: Irish Sign Language (5 Jul 2011)
Ciarán Cannon: I will undertake to make the Senator's feelings known to the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairà Quinn. If he is not available to have such a meeting with the Irish Deaf Society I will undertake to do so myself and take on board its views.
- Seanad: Schools Building Projects (5 Jul 2011)
Ciarán Cannon: I am replying on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairà Quinn. I thank the Senator for raising the matter as it provides me with the opportunity to outline to the House the Government's strategy for capital investment in schools building projects and the position regarding Kealkill national school in Bantry, County Cork. The current staffing level at...
- Seanad: School Curriculum (5 Jul 2011)
Ciarán Cannon: I am replying to this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairà Quinn. I thank the Senator for raising this issue. A range of foreign languages is available on the curriculum in schools - French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese and Arabic - at post-primary level. A post-primary languages initiative has been in place since...
- Seanad: School Curriculum (5 Jul 2011)
Ciarán Cannon: I will convey the Senator's views to the Minister, Deputy Ruairà Quinn. In the last 12 months there have been increasing trade opportunities with Russia, particularly within the agricultural sector, so we might need to continue focusing on that language. However, I agree with the Senator that we should have an ongoing rolling review of foreign language provision in second level schools to...
- Written Answers — School Transport: School Transport (6 Jul 2011)
Ciarán Cannon: The changes to school transport services relating to the Closed School Rule were announced in the 2011 Budget by the previous Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government and derive from recommendations in the Value for Money Review of the scheme. One of the changes, which will be implemented from September 2011, involves the uniform application of the distance eligibility criterion to all pupils...
- Written Answers — School Transport: School Transport (6 Jul 2011)
Ciarán Cannon: Under the terms of my Department's School Transport scheme, children with special educational needs are eligible for free school transport if they are attending the nearest recognised: mainstream school, special class / special school or a unit, that is or can be resourced, to meet their special educational needs under Department of Education and Skills criteria. The child, referred to by the...
- Written Answers — School Transport: School Transport (6 Jul 2011)
Ciarán Cannon: I take it that the Deputy is referring to the changes to the Primary School Transport Scheme announced in the 2011 Budget by the previous Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government which derive from recommendations in the Value for Money Review of the scheme. Under the terms of my Department's Primary School Transport Scheme, children are eligible for school transport if they reside 3.2 kilometres...
- Written Answers — School Transport: School Transport (6 Jul 2011)
Ciarán Cannon: Changes to school transport services relating to the Closed School Rule were announced in the 2011 Budget by the previous Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government and derive from recommendations in the Value for Money Review of the scheme. I wish to inform the Deputy that school transport arrangements under the Closed School Rule originated from the last major amalgamation of schools in the late...
- Written Answers — Vocational Education Committees: Vocational Education Committees (6 Jul 2011)
Ciarán Cannon: As part of the Government's Jobs Initiative, an additional 1,000 Further Education Post Leaving Certificate (PLC) and 3,000 Back to Education Initiative (BTEI) places were announced, to be prioritised for the unemployed. These additional places will be available from September. The PLC and BTEI programmes are open to all adults over 16 years of age. The breakdown of these allocations is in...
- Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (6 Jul 2011)
Ciarán Cannon: The post of Arts Education Officer is comprehended by the public sector staffing moratorium and there are no plans to expand the programme. The Arts Education Programme is available in a number of VECs and funds educational initiatives for adults, particularly those participating in Further Education, to encourage and develop an appreciation of the arts.
- School Transport (7 Jul 2011)
Ciarán Cannon: The school transport system is organised on behalf of the Department of Education and Skills by Bus Ãireann. There is significant private sector engagement in the delivery of services with 85%, or approximately 3,300 of the vehicles used, owned by private operators. Moreover, this percentage will increase over time. The system was reviewed in a value for money review that was published...
- School Transport (7 Jul 2011)
Ciarán Cannon: I am no great champion of Bus Ãireann and have been highly critical of the company in the past for the predatory and anti-competitive practices in which it sometimes has engaged. I refer to instances in which private operators that had identified profitable routes had their buses followed around the city by Bus Ãireann buses in an attempt to stymie the success of those routes. However, it...
- School Transport (7 Jul 2011)
Ciarán Cannon: Back in 2001, the requirement to establish a service was a minimum of ten pupils. This was changed by the then Minister to seven pupils and the cost of operating the school transport system rose by â¬20 million the following year. Bus Ãireann has established in recent months that potentially, 600 routes could be lost but it then carried out a forensic and in-depth analysis of the...
- School Transport (7 Jul 2011)
Ciarán Cannon: The school transport scheme, which is operated by Bus Ãireann, facilitates the transportation of more than 123,000 children to primary and post-primary schools each day. The parties to the Teachers' Conciliation Council have agreed the standardisation of the school breaks at Christmas, Easter and mid-term in the first and second terms, for the 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years....