Results 481-500 of 14,576 for speaker:Ruairi Quinn in 'Written Answers'

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Facilities (4 Jun 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: The broad tenets of higher education policy in Ireland were set out in the National Strategy for Higher Education published in January 2011. I am implementing a wide ranging reform programme in higher education to include increased flexible learning opportunities, part-time provision, work based learning and short intensive skills programmes. I have published my instructions for higher...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (4 Jun 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: The purpose of Circular 0030/2014, which issued to schools on 10th April 2014, is not to reduce the number of SNA posts in schools, but clarifies and restates the purpose of the SNA scheme which is to provide schools with additional support staff who can assist children with special educational needs who also have additional and significant care needs. My officials have already consulted...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education Policy (29 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: Youth on the Move is a package of policy initiatives on education and employment for young people in Europe. Launched in 2010, it is part of the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Under the Europe 2020 strategy, Ireland has signed up to a national headline target to reduce early school leaving to 8%, and to increase the number of 30-34 year olds with tertiary...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Guidance Counsellors (29 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: Since September 2012 guidance provision is now provided from within the overall staffing allocation of the school. This gives schools greater autonomy to determine how they deploy their teaching resources across the competing needs of the school. The representative organisations for School Principals and school management developed a framework that assists schools on how best to manage the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Staffing (29 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: I propose to take Questions Nos. 59 and 60 together. I wish to advise the Deputy that all mainstream primary schools have been allocated additional teaching resources under the General Allocation Model (GAM) to cater for children with learning support needs and high incidence special educational needs, including mild, borderline mild general learning difficulties and specific learning...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Public Sector Staff Sick Leave (29 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: Following a review of sick leave arrangements, a new Public Service wide sick leave scheme has been introduced across the Public Service. The Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) (Amendment) Act 2013, provided the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform with the power to make regulations that set out the specific details of the Public Service Sick Leave Scheme. These...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Skills Development (29 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: I am satisfied that my Department and its agencies have in place the necessary policies to meet the needs of employers so as to ensure that people have the necessary skills to take up jobs as they arise. The education and training system engages with employers at national, regional and local levels, as well as at institutional and programme level. National engagement with Employers: An...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (29 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: As part of my Department's large scale school building programme, prefab accommodation continues to be replaced with permanent structures on an on-going basis. Details of all schools on the 5 year capital programme is available on the Department's website. Under my Department's Prefab Replacement Initiatives announced in 2012 and 2013 approval was given to 216 schools to replace 614 prefab...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Pupil-Teacher Ratio (29 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: The criteria used for the allocation of teachers to schools is published annually on the Department's website. The key factor for determining the level of staffing resources provided at individual school level is the staffing schedule for the relevant school year and pupil enrolments on the previous 30 September. The staffing schedule operates in a clear and transparent manner and treats...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Patronage (29 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: Through the partnership arrangements that exist for the education sector, I and senior officials in the Department regularly engage with church representatives particularly in the context of the role of the Churches as patrons of schools. The Church of Ireland representative body in many instances also represents the interest of the minority churches, most recently in relation to discussions...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Enrolments (29 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: The Forward Planning Section of my Department uses a Geographical Information System (GIS) to analyse demographic data in order to determine the areas where additional school accommodation may be required. A variety of sources are used in this analysis, including census data, school enrolment data, and child benefit data obtained from the Department of Social Protection. Total pupil...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Expenditure (29 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: I wish to advise the Deputy that expenditure supporting pupils with Special Educational Needs was some €1.3bn in 2013, which represents approximately 15% of the entire budget of my Department. These resources have been protected, or in some areas have been increased in 2014, despite the ongoing severe financial position and a requirement to make expenditure savings across a range of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Broadband Services Provision (29 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: All post primary schools will be connected with 100Mbit/s by the end of 2014. As a result of the most recent framework that has been put in place the number of service providers to the Schools Broadband Programme for schools has been increased from 6 to 14 and this has led to a greater availability of improved services being made available for schools, most of the new providers are small...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme Waiting Times (29 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: Following a challenging first year of operation in 2012, SUSI improved its performance significantly in 2013 with all key targets met in terms of the timely processing of grant applications and the payment of awarded grants. This result is based on changes and improvements made by SUSI for 2013 following an independent review of its first year. SUSI processed over 92,000 grant applications...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Administration (29 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: I propose to take Questions Nos. 71 and 72 together. The current status of all projects on the school building programme, including those for County Kildare, may be viewed on my Department's website at www.education.ie which is updated regularly throughout the year. The Deputy will be aware that the 5 Year Construction Plan, that I announced in March 2012, lists the individual school...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Gaelscoileanna Issues (29 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: I propose to take Questions Nos. 73 and 74 together. My Department has no record of the submissions to which the Deputy refers. However, the Deputy will be aware that a new post-primary school is opening in the north Kildare area in September 2014 and this new school will have an all-Irish Aonad. This will supplement all-Irish post primary provision in the area. My Department has...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staffing (29 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: The criteria used for the allocation of teachers to primary and post-primary schools, including redeployment arrangements, are published annually. The staffing and redeployment arrangements for the 2014/15 school year are available on the Department website. Teaching vacancies are filled in the first instance through the redeployment of surplus permanent teachers. The redeployment of all...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Autism Support Services (28 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: The statutory obligations in relation to the provision of educational services for children and young adults with special educational needs including those with a clinical diagnosis of Autism and Aspergers syndrome are primarily set out under the Education Act (1998) and the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs (EPSEN) Act 2004. My Department's policy is focused on ensuring...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (28 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: I wish to advise the Deputy that my Department has provided a revised Schedule of Accommodation to the school's Patron and a response is awaited. Once received, the schedule will then issue to the Design Team who will be authorised to complete the Stage 2(a) report for submission to my Department. On the satisfactory completion of this report and subject to no issues arising, the project...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Enrolments (28 May 2014)

Ruairi Quinn: I propose to take Questions Nos. 57 and 67 together. My Department has received an application from the gaelscoil to which the Deputy refers to expand from a single to a two stream school i.e. from an 8 classroom to a 16 classroom school. As the Deputies will be aware, the over-riding objective of Education capital expenditure is to meet the demographic challenge facing the education...