EDUCATION
Each speech listed here is an edited speech. If you'd like to see the speech or debate in full, please go to the Oireachtas website and click on "Seanad Eireann" and then "Seanad Debates" and click on the relevant date as listed with each speech on this page.
Schools Building Projects (23/04/08)
Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act (EPSEN Act) (09/04/08)
School Building Process (13/03/08)
Schools Building Projects (11/03/08)
Autism and Special Education (05/03/08)
School Funding and Building (28/02/08)
Special Education (20/02/08)
Special Education – Autism (19/02/08)
The EPSEN Act (06/02/08)
Children with Autism and The EPSEN Act (30/01/08)
Withdrawal of School Summer Projects Scheme (13/12/07)
Minister of Education- Lack of Balance (13/12/07)
Budget 2008 Statements – Education (05/12/07)
Education Statements (22/11/07)
DIT and Irish Research Electronic Library (21/11/07)
Third Level Grants - SSIA Penalties (17/10/07)
Gaelige Immersionn in Schools (04/10/07)
Teacher Vetting (27/09/07)
Special Education (27/09/07)
Education for Children with Special Needs (04/04/07)
SSIA Interest Regarded as Income for 3rd Level Grants (12/10/06)
Institutes of Technology Bill (05/07/06)
Adult and Further Education(21/06/06)
Comprehensive Funding(20/06/06)
Closure by Christian Brothers of Inchicore School (27/04/06)
Teaching Council (28/03/06)
Marino College (07/03/06)
Marino College (02/03/06)
Teaching Council (23/02/06)
Third Level Education (22/02/06)
Educational Services (15/02/06)
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Schools Building Projects
23/04/08 - The proposal I am making involves something slightly different from what we usually do during the school building process. I am calling on the Government to put in place a project management procedure that I can understand. There is a need to publish the precise criteria and weightings under which schools qualify for building projects. The Government should introduce a tracking procedure whereby projects can be tracked through the various stages of the process. I ask the Minister to establish an internal and external quality assurance audit of school building procedures and to publish the results. The Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General should be asked to carry out a value for money audit. A stock inventory of primary schools infrastructure, including the number of temporary and permanent buildings, should be carried out by the Office of Public Works or some other body. The Committee of Public Accounts should be required to scrutinise the equality and fairness of the procedures for awarding school building grants. Future schools building projects should be advanced - fast-tracked, where necessary - through the Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Act 2006.
… When I decided to examine where the Government stands on these issues, I found that an “organisational review programme” has been established by the Department of the Taoiseach. The programme involves a new way of managing the delivery of customer service at departmental level, an examination of the question of governance at departmental level and an evaluation of performance measurement and customer and stakeholder feedback. Is a similar approach being taken in the building section of the Department of Education and Science? Is there a system of customer feedback on performance in the Department? When I visited the Department’s website, I learned that it has a change management unit and that a customer action programme was in operation between 2004 and 2007. The plan sets estimated response times for customers, stakeholders and clients who have queries. It sets out the Department’s commitment to informing customers of the standards they should expect at the point of service. Under the plan, stakeholders should be given an idea of the standards of service they should receive and the estimated time it should take to process applications for main services.
That is what the Department of Education and Science says it should be doing. The Minister, Deputy Hanafin, should take responsibility for it. I am not trying to initiate a personal attack on her. I am absolutely agitated about this issue. The way things are being done is wrong - it should not be like that. If the Department lived up to the standards it has set, I would not be wasting the House’s time tonight. The Department’s stated intention is to monitor its achievement in meeting its targets and to review progress regularly. It aims to set standard response times to be achieved by its school building service and to inform its customers of such standards, but that is not happening. I would be happy if the Minister were to tell me that such standards are to be achieved, and if public representatives could find information on behalf of school authorities or tell such authorities where information can be accessed.
I do not know what level of governance we have in terms of internal audit and quality assurance systems. I want to have in place what almost every other public body has, namely, a quality assurance scheme where an internal and external auditor take a number of projects, in this case schools building projects, follow them through from start to finish and check whether they follow established and agreed procedures and timelines. In terms of how an internal audit review should be carried out, these procedures and timelines would be written on the website of the Department of Finance. The audit review should examine whether these are followed step by step, where a project goes wrong and value for money issues. This governance is not in place.
…. I ask my colleagues on the Government side to take note that there is no mention of resources in my motion tonight. I deliberately did not include the issue of resources so that it would not be necessary for people to tell me what the Government is spending. Whether there is €1 million, €1 billion or €10 billion to be expended, the issues I set out in my motion must be dealt with.
It is disgraceful that the senior Minister in the Department in her response was not able to deal with the questions of audit - internal and external - of governance or of inventory, except in a passing reference to rented prefabricated buildings. That is the measure of the importance of the motion. It is disgraceful that whoever put the speech together in the Department could not even answer questions on simple issues.
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Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act (EPSEN Act)
09/04/08 - Apart from the Government’s amendment being bad and embarrassing, it is factually incorrect. For example, it is not true that the EPSEN Act is being implemented on a phased basis in line with the five-year timeframe envisaged. That is not happening. .. The background to it was that ordinary people found themselves going to the highest courts in the land to gain the right to education for their children. As soon as their cases reached the higher courts, the Government either crumbled or lodged an appeal to the Supreme Court. It was wrong whichever way it went and this legislation resulted.
It is simple and it means where a child is considered by school authorities as requiring special needs, they ask for an assessment. .. At every stage, provision is made for appeals by parents, schools and a number of other bodies. Everything is belt and braces and it is superb legislation. It is so good that I travelled to teacher centres around the country and proposed to teachers that they should not worry about the legislation and they should support it because it would be a positive development. It was positive but the Government has walked away from it.
.. When the Minister for Education and Science passed the legislation, she forwarded it to the NCSE saying she wanted it implemented in a five-year timeframe. We all agreed that was reasonable, even though we all wanted it implemented the next day. The NCSE produced a superb, professional report outlining 42 actions relating to the implementation of the legislation. The report reflected the views of every group involved in special education, including parents, management, school boards, teachers and other professionals. …. Everything was done and this was presented to the Government in the autumn of 2006. The programme was to begin in December 2006.
… I probably know more about this Act than anybody else in the House. I do not state this from a position of arrogance. I have gone through it many times. I spoke about this in Navan, Sligo, Monaghan, Wexford, Carlow and on several occasions in Dublin. I met teachers everywhere who had grave doubts about it. I stated it is the way forward. I told them it is my utopian approach to how we should deal with special educational needs. The Government put it together and everybody welcomed it. It has not happened and it is a disgrace. It is a further disgrace that the impending amendment to the Act does not mention how it will be implemented.
… Each step is open to appeal by parents. Parents such as those we discussed here who went to the High Court, such as the family from Wicklow or the Supreme Court, such as the family from Cork, would not have needed to do so because they would have been involved from point one. They could have made their case to the school, the National Council for Special Education or one of the appeals bodies attaching to the council. At least they would have been recognised all the way through. By the time it reached a court, a judge could state that in all reasonableness, it had gone through the system, the professionals had done their very best, everything had been done according to plan and everybody must live with it.Instead, parents are fighting and shouting.
Today, a group from a special post-primary school Dundalk was outside the gates of Leinster House. The school deals with children with mild mental handicaps, rather than use any politically correct language. They wanted their children to learn domestic science and other practical subjects. They were seeking extra hours. Where have we reached as a society? Perhaps they cannot do Latin or geometry. However, these children can learn a great deal. We can give them skills and help and support them. Parents are outside our gate 12 years into the Celtic tiger looking for a couple of extra hours of support a week.
…. Fine Gael and other parties gave a great welcome to this Act. We are appalled that we have seen nothing happen with regard to its implementation since the day it was passed.
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School Building Process
13/03/08 - In recent months, 13 Members have, on different occasions, raised issues to do with the schools building programme and related matters. The responses we receive to these queries are exactly the same in all cases, being merely a restatement of what the school authorities already know. The entire process is a model of procrastination. It seems a structure has been established to prevent us obtaining information on where schools stand on the priority list. That is not good enough.
This issue should be dealt with by the Committee of Public Accounts and the Comptroller and Auditor General. I call for a value for money audit not of the money being spent but of the process that schools must go through in dealing with the Department when they seek an extension, additional classroom or new school. What is going on would not be tolerated in any other structure in the public or private sector.
School authorities are informed of their entitlements and put on a list, but the list changes without any information being conveyed to the schools in question. Attempts to obtain information represent an appalling waste of time and effort. Ordinary people in communities are being given the run-around by the Department, as are Members on all sides of the House. The priority list must provide a clear indication of where schools stand and allow them to see when their position changes. Moreover, reasons must be given when one school is gazumped by another.
I do not want the Minister to come to the House only to deliver a long, confusing speech that leaves us less informed than we were before. This issue must be dealt with at a higher level. I do not issue an idle threat in signalling my intention to follow through on this. I will write to the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Committee of Public Accounts if I do not receive a response on this. There must be a quality audit of procedures in the buildings section of the Department of Education and Science. The current situation is simply not good enough.
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Schools Building Projects
Dromclough NS, Listowel & Rahan NS, Mallow.
11/03/08 - Both schools have experienced various problems for many years. Of concern to both schools is their position on the Department’s list. The Department’s school building programme is based on various stages …. Two problems arise, namely, the Department regularly changes the stages of development and there is no clear transparency in this regard. Schools must be kept informed of their position on the list and of their progress from year to year.
The problem is that the school (Dromclough) has been waiting more than two years for a site visit and is having difficulty obtaining information through Tullamore and the various press offices. When one phones the building section, one is told it communicates only with the Minister’s office and when one rings the Minister’s office one is told to ring the building section. This has happened. I have a record of it in my office. I spoke to a person in the building section and was told to take up the matter with the Minister’s office. When I contacted that office I was told to take up the matter with the building section and the person in the Minister’s office with whom I spoke then put me through to the same person in the building section who earlier could not deal with my query. The system is a nonsense. We have complained about procedures in the HSE on various occasions, but I have outlined what is happening in this Department. I should not have to raise this matter here. I should know exactly what is the position in regard to these school projects, what will happen next in the process, when the next stage will occur and what is the likely stage of projects in the process. That is simply not happening.
We need to know the reason Drumclough national school has been waiting one and half years for a technical team visit, and the names and locations all the schools on the list awaiting a technical visit. The Minister usually appoints such a team at the beginning of each year, but we do not know the exact date of that proposed technical visit. We do not know why the school was not assessed, when it will be assessed, who will assess it and where it will be ranked on the list. I could go on about the position of this school.
Rahan national school has a problem of rat infestation and a school building issue. The project is at stage 1, preliminary level, but it should be processed to stage 2 because it has been designated as a school that needs to accommodate the requirements of a principal and eight teachers. Why has a stop been put to the school’s progressing to the next stage of project? The board of management had an open discussion with the Department of Education and Science in Tullamore last month about the position, but the Department would not commit on the position. It has said that a ministerial decision is required and that the project is subject to funding, whatever that means at this stage.
The difficulty is how the schools progress from step to step in this process. Members should not have to raise the case of three or four schools on the Adjournment every week. We should know where schools are on the list of projects and the schools that move up the list. Such a list should be no different from an accident and emergency list, a waiting list to see a consultant or to have an operation. The position should be clear and projects should move from one stage of the process to the other. Transparency is needed in this process.
….. What the Minister of State has told me in good faith is that the next step for these schools is the appointment of a design team and that this will be considered as the school building programme is rolled over the coming months. That is stated as if this process started today, but it went on all last year and the year prior to that.The applications have been agreed and the next step is for them to be considered as the school building programme is rolled out. There is no honesty in this system. … It is not an efficient business model by which to operate and it is utterly depressing.
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Autism and Special Education
05/03/08 - Last night’s meeting between members of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party and the Minister for Education and Science has been widely reported. I hope it went well. Given the smiles on their faces this morning, Fianna Fáil Senators appear to have been reassured, bought in or whatever is the appropriate term. I ask that the House be given a report of the meeting outlining what new plans the Minister has in store.
What secrets on autism and other issues must be related at a private meeting and kept from the rest of us? The issue is whether new information is available of which we all need to be made aware. I want to know what those attending the meeting were told about the implementation of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act. Having discussed this issue several weeks ago, Senators are no wiser about when the legislation will be commenced.
The Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act must be commenced as soon as possible. Parents are involved immediately when a child’s assessment takes place, the psychological report is drawn up and resources are planned. They know from the beginning what their child may need. Without being critical of parents, many of them have observed that ABA systems work perfectly for some children with autism. However, they may not work for all children with the condition and it is possible that people are being misled in this debate because it has focused on ABA rather than autism and the wider issue of the implementation of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act. As I have stated previously, until this legislation is commenced, parents and professionals will not know what are the real needs of children with special needs. It is appalling that the legislation has not yet been implemented.
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School Funding and Building
28/02/08 - .. this Government promised during the election that the capitation grant for primary schools would be doubled but this has not happened. This is the outcome. Parents and teachers met around the country, organised by the INTO, prior to the last election. Meeting various groups, the Government gave a commitment to the rise but there is no sign of it. Schools are now skimping and scraping trying to make ends meet and managing schools on a shoestring but they are not succeeding. They cannot make available what is supposed to be available. It is time we saw exactly how schools are doing their business and how schools cannot be run on the amount of money available.
There should be a priority list of schools designated for building work or new schools this year. It should be open, transparent and available. We should see it when it is published and it should continue. People might not be aware a list is put together one year and if it is not completed, a new list is drawn up the next year with no reference to the schools prioritised the previous year. Everyone in this House has been lobbied by some school or other for information wanting to know where it stands on the list and when the building work is likely to happen. There are nine stages and schools are held back at every one of them, not knowing how to get to the next point or where the blockage exists. It is appalling.
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Special Education
20/02/08 - Tomorrow’s debate on education for persons with special educational needs should raise a number of interesting issues. ….. we should recognise the story in last night’s news of an empty school facility for autistic children and an autistic child who cannot get in. The school in question has stated that the facility cannot open owing to a lack of therapists but the Minister argued that the school should enrol the child for educational purposes only. We must add to this to the fact the Ó Cuanacháin family is facing bankruptcy because of having to go through an appeal in the courts. I was happy to praise the Minister for Education and Science yesterday for what she has done. However, there is a simple answer to this. The reason the Ó Cuanacháins are facing bankruptcy and the reason there are empty classrooms in Castleknock is very simple. It is that the Minister has not yet commenced certain provisions of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004.
Every speaker tomorrow should ask the Minister to explain herself. They should simply ask one question. Why has she not commenced the relevant sections of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act, which has been approved by both Houses and signed into law by the Government and which would solve all these problems? If this was done there no longer would be an argument. These sections would decide the matter of therapists and education and the question of the appeals structure. Parents would have the right to appeal at every level. The Act provides for appeals, assessment, resources and implementation. It is all in it.
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Special Education – Autism
19/02/08 - We will have a long debate on Thursday on the Education of Persons with Special Educational Needs Act. I have been a great critic of the Minister for Education and Science with regard to the lack of movement on that issue and the fact it has not been commenced and moneys have not been provided. I have also been a constant critic with regard to the lack of support for special education. However, I would like to clarify one thing. Fair is fair and of all the Ministers for Education and Science we have had over the past 20 years, no other Minister has put more into autism than the current Minister. It is not enough and I have disagreed with her, but in terms of the current row, she has done more than any Minister of the past 20 years on autism. I remember trying to convince Ministers 20 years ago that there was such a condition as autism. One might find that hard to believe, but there was a time when the Department would argue that it was a social and emotional need and not a specific condition.
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The EPSEN Act
06/02/08 - I do not want to make a mantra out of this matter. The legislation has been passed by the Houses of the Oireachtas and signed by the President, but has not been commenced. Ordinary people do not understand the reasons legislation, even when signed by the President, is not commenced by the relevant Minister. Members on both sides of the House are receiving calls on behalf of children with special needs. The Act recognises a special need, provides for a child to be assessed, involves all the professionals and insists on resources being made available. The resources are to applied at school or other level and regular reviews are take place. None of this has been done so far. The commencement strategy has been ignored. The Minister for Education and Science has had it on her desk for nearly one year. I call on her to come to the House to explain why the legislation to support children with special needs is still lying on a shelf in the Department and has not been implemented. It is an absolute disgrace.
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Children with Autism and The EPSEN Act
30/01/08 - The issue of the child with autism whose parents are faced with an extraordinary legal bill has seized public attention this week. I do not necessarily agree with what the parents are trying to do. I have told the House before I believe applied behavioural analysis, ABA, is a perfectly good system, but that the Department of Education and Science should have more eclectic arrangements in place. However, that is not the issue. The point is that the parents in question were acting constitutionally as prime educators of their child. They were driven to do something, as there was an imperative on them to do the best for their child. They had no option but to take the matter to its limit. They have done all of us a service by so doing. I am not arguing with the outcome in the courts. The courts came to a decision, right or wrong. However, it is wrong, unfair and undemocratic that these people are now being made bankrupt by fulfilling their constitutional responsibilities and imperatives.
The House passed the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act in 2004. I appealed at that stage for a commencement date to be included. The Minister refused and I was told that parts of the Act would be commenced over time. The Act allowed for the involvement of parents at the assessment stage of a child with educational needs. It provided for an appeal as part of the assessment. It then involved teachers, psychologists, other professionals and parents in the determination of the resources required and, again, the parents have an appeal process built into that.
In terms of the application of resources, it involved a series of professionals and allowed the parents to make appeals. There were to be three systems of appeal, which were accepted and promoted by the Government as an extraordinary commitment on the basis that there would never be a shortage of resources for children with special educational needs. The State’s refusal to commence the appropriate sections of the Education for People with Special Educational Needs Act, EPSEN, has driven these parents to go the route of the law as far as the Supreme Court to try to get what is best for their child. There would have been no need for them to have done so had we put in place what was passed by the Oireachtas. The Government’s failure to implement the appropriate sections, or 90%, of the EPSEN Act, means these parents are now in this quandary. We owe them something and I ask the Leader to bring it to them.
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Withdrawal of School Summer Projects Scheme
13/12/07 - The summer projects for schools is being ended. When schools needed work done on the buildings they needed to complete a complex procedure. People decided that it would be better if this could be done locally. A new system was set up. They could then manage it locally, with grants available. In order to do so, engineers’ reports, architects’ reports, builders’ reports and various other reports were needed before the schools qualified for a grant. It worked very well and efficiently, giving quality, value, local involvement and volunteerism. The Minister has pulled the plug on the scheme.
Not only are schools losing out by not having projects completed but they are losing money. They spent the last year getting engineers’ reports, architects’ reports, builders’ reports and various other reports in order to apply for the grant. This is counterproductive and does not save money. Schools will become run down, it will cost more next year and we must undergo the whole rigamarole again. I ask for the Minister to explain this to the House so that we can show her that this does not make economic sense, apart from the lack of education.
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Minister of Education- Lack of Balance
13/12/07 - The House will be aware that the Minister for Education and Science recently decided to circulate a copy of a book on the first president of Fianna Fáil to every school in Ireland. …. I do not object at all to the circulation of a well-written book, namely, Diarmuid Ferriter’s book on de Valera. That is not the issue here. The issue is that it can and is being perceived as showing a lack of balance. This is important. I fought for many years to get more books into schools so I am not going to argue in this House against sending books to schools. … I am looking at it in the interests of balance.
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Budget 2008 Statements – Education
05/12/07 - This budget is about broken promises. I do not have time to go into detail but I will focus on education, an issue in which I am closely involved. The increase in the allocation for the Department of Education and Science is appallingly small. At the Fianna Fáil Ard-Fheis, we were promised that the Government would double the capitation grant for primary schools. We were assured on numerous occasions that the pupil-teacher ratio would be reduced. Neither of these objectives has been achieved and their implementation will not be possible given the resources allocated.
In education provision, one does the sums and discovers there is an overall increase of less than 2%. This is an appalling increase. I emphasise that all the available funding will be used to build schools in the Pale. It will not be used to provide funding for the school I visited in Sligo last week. It will not address the difficulties experienced by the school in Ballina that I brought to the Minister’s attention last week. The money is simply not there. I am not saying this is a poor budget. My point is that many issues have not been addressed. For instance, schools will continue to have to raise funds. This is unacceptable given that the people involved in these schools were allowed by the Government to entertain certain expectations. Perhaps the way to deal with this is to admit that it cannot be done now but will be done next month or next year, but I have not heard that either.
The commitments given have not been delivered upon. The commitment to reduce class sizes cannot be fulfilled because adequate provision has not been made for the increased population of school-going children. Neither can the increase in the capitation grant be made. Thus, there will no significant improvement in primary education. This reality puts some perspective on the welcome initiatives in the budget.
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Education Statements
22/11/07 - Fáiltím roimh an Aire. … Ba mhaith liom a rá chomh maith go raibh rud ar an gclár inné that was mentioned by Senators Norris and Ormonde and me. It has come to our attention that the Dublin Institute of Technology, the largest third level institution in the country with 21,000 students, does not have access to the Irish Research eLibrary, IReL. The biggest third level institution is being kept out of the club by the universities. This is wrong and I ask the Minister to investigate.
Ba mhaith liom caint mar gheall ar rud eile atá pléite eadrainn cheana féin. Tá a fhios agam go bhfuil deacrachtaí éagsúla eadrainn mar gheall ar an tumoideachais. Tuigim cás an Aire ar an gceist seo. Nílim ag rá nach bhfuil aon merit ann — tá. Teastaíonn uaim an rud atá ar siúl againn ó thaobh na Ghaeilge de a mhiniú. I do not fall off the chair on this. Ní amháin go bhfuil aidhm oideachais i gceist — tá aidhmeanna polaitiúla agus cultúrtha i gceist freisin. In that regard, certain compromises have to be made. Tuigim an argóint atá a dhéanamh ag an Aire — gur chóir go mbeadh balance i gcuraclam na scoile. I agree, and I have fought for that all my life. That is why I have sympathy for the Minister’s position. Ar an dtaobh eile den scéal, tá na scoileanna seo ag iarraidh cuir i gcoinne an chultúr Béarla as a dtáinig na leanaí. They are trying to achieve a balance with the previous lives of the children. To that extent, tá sé an intinn ag na scoileanna go mbeadh na páistí tumtha agus sáite sa Ghaeilge ar feadh cúpla bliain, agus ansin tugtha thar n-ais go dtí an ghnáth-curaclam. Braithim go bhfuil an-argóint acu agus táim ar aon taobh leo. As the Minister knows, I have spent most of my life ag cogadh agus in full warfare leis na heagraisí Ghaeilge, ach an t-am seo caithfidh mé a rá go dtuigim an méid ata ar siúl acu and I agree with it.
What is happening with the school building fund? Tracking a school building project is like finding one’s way around a maze. My office is like a crime scene investigation at the moment. For example, a school received permission in 1998 for a building project and received another letter in 1999, but the project was moved from one section to another and the school must go on a new priority list every year. It is not working out in that sense.
When will we see the investment in information and communications technology in primary schools and in post-primary schools which was promised in the budget and which is on the Minister’s plan? As as far as I am aware, and I would be happy to be corrected on this, the money for it has not been put in place.
As we do not often get a chance to talk about the school curriculum because we are always in the trenches and at war, I want to look at it generally. If I could take over this island for a short period, I would rewrite the school curriculum.
An rud atá i gceist agam ná seo. An exercise I have tried with people on many occasions is to look at education in terms of serving the community and at the kind of community we now want. If one takes a group of people and asks them what qualities they want to see in the next generation of Irish political leaders, and takes another group and ask them what qualities they want to see in the next generation of Irish church leaders and if one does the same in the case of trade union leaders, business leaders, etc., they tend to come out with the same list. There are attributes such as creativity, risk taking, articulation, leadership, tolerance, mercy and others which one cannot measure and for which one cannot get points in the leaving certificate or in any examination.
We should have a clear objective of the kind of society we are trying to create and then ensure that somewhere along the way those issues are addressed in the curriculum. Cardinal Newman stated that the first quality of an educated person was tolerance. Where do we teach tolerance? I acknowledge that teachers and adults try to give good example. Where do we state, for example, that we tried at least to infuse that idea into people and where does it come into the curriculum? There should be an element of that in the curriculum.
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DIT and Irish Research Electronic Library
21/11/07 - Senator Mark Daly brought to my attention the fact that the Dublin Institute of Technology, the largest third level college in the country, does not have access to the Irish Research Electronic Library initiative, while the seven universities do. That is disgraceful. There is no case for excluding the DIT. It smacks of an elite cabal of senior educationalists keeping the institute out. It means the institute cannot conduct its research and turns on its head all Government policy on developing research in the education and other areas. The Minister for Education and Science should explain to the House how this will be resolved.
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Third Level Grants - SSIA Penalties
17/10/07 - We receive numerous queries on this matter and a new issue is that recently retired people are deprived of grants for their student children because they were prudent enough to have saved for an SSIA. The Government addition to the SSIA is taken into consideration and people are deprived of grants. To make a bad decision worse, the withholding tax is not taken into consideration and is included in the calculation which deprives their children of a grant.
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Gaelige Immersionn in Schools
04/10/07 - Tá rud amháin eile gur cóir di (Aire Oideachais agus Eolaíochta) a phlé linn chomh maith, an t-achrann atá ar siúl faoi láthair idir Ghaelscoileanna agus an Aire féin maidir le múineadh na Gaeilge sna scoileanna sin. An modh atá in úsáid faoi láthair ná tum-oideachas, an immersion method of teaching. Is modh múinte é atá in úsáid ar fud an domhain — there is nothing different about it. It is a perfectlly sustainable and correct method.
Ar an dtaobh eile den scéal, tá an tAire a rá gur cóir go mbeadh Béarla ar am-chlár na scoileanna chomh maith. Her worry is that if it is just complete immersion in Gaelinn without any formal teaching of english, that does not reflect the timetable. Tá mise ar thaobh na nGaelscoileanna san argóint seo, cé go dtuigim go bhfuil argóint láidir ag an Aire. Ba bhreá liom go bpléifidh sí é anseo linn. The Minister is in a perfectly understandable position. I do not fully agree with her on it, but I accept the strength of her arguments. Ba chóir go mbeidh díospóireacht againn ar an ábhar seo agus tuiscint againn ar cad tá ar siúl. Ní hé go bhfuil aon duine mícheart ach caithfimid teacht ar an seift is fearr do dhaltaí na scoileanna sin.
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Teacher Vetting
27/09/07 - There was a great brouhaha among politicians during the summer, myself included, about a lecturer in Athlone who was involved in an abuse case. I do not want to refer to that particular case, but during the debate the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, with responsibility for children, made it clear that he would be enacting vetting legislation which would be welcomed by people working in child care, teachers and the Teaching Council. However, there are many political difficulties to this and the Minister of State should deal with that.
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Special Education
27/09/07 - The Bill (Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004) was passed through both Houses with acclaim on the basis that it would finally provide the resources necessary to allow people with special needs to reach their full potential. The guarantee given was that this would allow schools to do their work, would allow parents to be relieved of much of the pressure of fundraising and so on, and that the appropriate resources would be put in place between psychologists, psychiatrists and other therapists.
In order to put that in place, the Government established the National Council for Special Education, which is based in County Meath and is a very effective and impressive organisation. At the request of the Minister, it produced an implementation programme with three pages on implementations, the costing and timeframe for each one. The first implementation was to be made in December 2006. I would now like the Minister for Education and Science to explain what has happened to that timetable, why it is not being supported and why schools are now back in their position and are not able to deal with children with special needs. This causes trouble for parents, school authorities and everyone else.
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Education for Children with Special Needs
04/04/07 - The Leader will recall that over recent years there has been much brouhaha and a great welcome for the education for persons with special educational needs legislation. The commitment was given by Government that this would be fully supported and provided for and that people with special learning needs would be looked after. This Act is now in place and the National Council for Special Educational Needs has been established. Last December this council presented the Minster with an outline of timelines and milestones for the implementation of the Act and it is appalling this has not been achieved. Section 13 of the Act provides the funding but I cannot find out what has been done. I do not know what is the level of training but I know that schools are having more trouble than ever before in accessing educational psychologists. The timelines are not being adhered to.
…. This seems to be an old-fashioned vision without provision effort by the Minister if she cannot deliver. I ask that the House be fully informed whether there is a serious commitment from Government in the area of special education.
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SSIA Interest Regarded as Income for 3rd Level Grants
12/10/06 - It is not good enough for the Minister to claim that only a small number of people will be affected because the issue will affect families which have skimped and scraped over a number of years to save for an SSIA in the hope that the resulting bonus would help send their children to college. Now, however, the reward for their efforts is the loss of the grant. However small the number concerned, who among us wants to explain that our political decision has sent a family backwards? It is an unacceptable situation.
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Institutes of Technology Bill
05/07/06 - I welcome this legislation, for which I have often called. The Bill brings the institutes of technology under the remit of the HEA by removing the Department’s power in that regard. The most negative aspect of the OECD report was that it recommended doctoral level research to be confined to universities, which was an appallingly bad call. I welcome that the Government ignored it and that, in his Budget Statement, the Minister for Finance announced that such research would take place throughout the third level sector. I look forward to that crucial provision. Through it, we can tie research, technology and development to the commercial world. We can take research and apply it, particularly to the marketplace.
For 15 years I have been complaining about how little we spend on research and development. While the figure has been improved time and again, our spending remains low in European terms. The seed capital provided by the Government to third level education is important, but approximately €200 million of that is provided to universities while only a couple of million euro is provided to the institutes of technology. This is unfair and lacks equity. Will the Minister of State address this matter?
One sentence in the Minister of State’s speech summarises the proposals. She said the Bill would allow greater managerial freedom to respond to the opportunities and challenges of supporting regional and national social and economic development. The rest of the speech was not necessary because that sums up how the institutes of technology can be developed. If that is allowed to happen they can provide a constant output of doctoral level graduates, which is crucial to the world of research and development. We do not yet understand that research must take place at every level. While solid research has been carried out in colleges and universities in recent years the level of research must grow. Most has been at graduate or post-graduate level but our economy now needs doctoral level research to progress and the institutes of technology can give us that.
The institutes of technology can also strengthen the regional and sectoral involvement in the innovation infrastructure of the country, which is crucially important. They can enable industry-led technology to guide the collaboration of industry-led technology and to focus on medium-term research and technology issues. People can come with an idea and it can be progressed to the point where it can be brought forward to the market place.
I have studiously avoided talking about the Bill because it is, in the main, something with which we are all in agreement. I want to look beyond the Bill and consider the next stage in the process. We must allow it to bridge the gaps among research, education, teaching, knowledge and epistemology and tie them all together in a pragmatic way and in a way that is academically based.
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Adult and Further Education
21/06/2007 - This issue is a source of serious anxiety. Whenever one speaks to people on the ground regarding this area of education, the first thing they mention is the McIver report. There are elements of the McIver report about which I have some questions. I would debate further education centres. I try to view things in the round, determining how the sector might advance in parallel with other aspects of society.
Everyone will know whom I mean when I speak of a man who came before committees perhaps once a month over the past ten years. I am referring to the former head of IFSRA, who retired on 1 February this year. He moved the organisation from being the Central Bank to a new role. I crossed swords with him in many different contexts and recognised and respected his contribution. I met him the week after he had retired and asked him what he would do with himself. He said that he had enrolled in college, where he would begin a postgraduate degree in pure physics. That is what we need to hear. Those are the success stories, and there is great demand for such services. I want to move that forward and examine what we could and should be doing.
I could make the same point regarding teachers in peripheral areas, who I know would like to study further. Many of them use the Open University. I do not know how one could make it accessible in a supportive way, with grants and so on for people around the country, but it offers a useful way forward. It is crucial that we open up to people, showing them what is available and allowing them to obtain qualifications and move on. It is now possible to gain professional qualifications on-line.
Another area is that of arts and culture. If one was to visit the National Concert Hall on a Saturday night, one would discover that the audience is upper middle-class. Why is this the case? At one stage, fine writers such as Brendan Behan and Seán O’Casey emerged from the ranks of the artisan, craft and trades classes. However, this is no longer the case. This is not the way it should be. People must believe and understand that art is … part of further education and the appreciation of our culture.
We must constantly connect further and adult education with developments in the wider world. Therefore, it must be tied into broadband and IT and the needs, policies and issues of the day so that ordinary people begin to see how waste might be managed and object to ridiculous proposals. I want people to be immersed in cultural activities if they so wish. Every apprenticeship should include a period of time spent examining drama or music because it would unlock a considerable amount of energy……. I conclude by thanking the Minister of State for her continued commitment to adult and further education. The real measure will not be our words but the ticking off of the recommendations in the McIver report as they are being implemented.
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Comprehensive Funding
20/06/06 - I welcome, as we all should, the decision announced by the Government at the weekend to invest millions of euro in research and development in third and fourth level education. However, it is difficult to relate it to the group standing outside Leinster House today representing a 16 year old school with 250 pupils, which cannot get a school site or approval from the Department of Education and Science.
Education must begin at the first step of the ladder. If a successful and well-run school which is conducting its business properly, such as Gaelscoil Sáirséal in the Cathaoirleach’s county of Limerick, cannot get support on these kinds of issues, there is no point going to the top deck. The Minister should explain to the House how we will have a run all the way through, so a viable school will get the support to which it is entitled.
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Closure by Christian Brothers of Inchicore School
27/04/06 - Yesterday, Senators referred to the importance of St. Michael’s CBS, Inchicore, which is located in a highly-underprivileged area. I did not intervene in the debate because I wished to check something. I believe the Christian Brothers are closing the operation because the school is situated on two acres of prime development land. We are walking away from a highly-underprivileged, disadvantaged community for the sake of a small investment. We should discuss this. The Minister for Education and Science must abide by decisions of the management and school authorities, who seem determined to close the school, but she should support the appointment of an additional staff member. This is one of the most underprivileged areas, a fact I have been aware of for many years. The school has done Trojan work despite difficulties and opposition. It deserves our support.
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Teaching Council
28/03/06 - We have regularly discussed the Lisbon Agenda. The Heads of Government are meeting this week to discuss economic and other reform in Europe and progress on the agenda. The reality is outlined very well in this week’s Charlemagne column in The Economist. It states that we need what has been achieved in Finland, which is now a model for reform in the area. “TEACHERS, teachers, teachers” is the subtitle. It goes on to state that we can do it without examinations, a national curriculum, or testing. All we need is good teachers with the responsibility and freedom to get on with their work. To get good teachers, we must simply allow them professional responsibility and pay them well.
A good start has been made within the last hour in the announcement of the establishment of the Teaching Council, a move forward. Let us keep such matters to the forefront of our minds when considering discussions in Government Buildings on public service pay, benchmarking, the cost of teachers and so on. We are the beneficiaries. I particularly welcomed aspects of the report on third level education published by the OECD within the last year, especially since it finally accorded freedom to the institutes of technology by giving them annual grants through the Higher Education Authority. We bemoaned the fact that they had no access to doctorates, but that is now being addressed under the Government plan in the budget.
We must carefully consider how we can move matters forward positively. The only danger would be if we did not have a properly paid public service or failed to deal with the issues causing problems in France or affecting lower-paid migrant workers. There are issues to address, and the prize is as good now as last time.
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Marino College
07/03/06 - I asked the Leader last week to arrange a debate on the problems at Marino Institute of Education.The report on the matter that has been published rubbishes the college’s staff, anyone who has tried to sort out the difficulties and the Department of Education and Science. It seems that everyone is wrong except for the trustees of the college. It is time to consider this matter. The consultants were directed not to talk to the person with the main grievance, who was the main source of evidence, or to other people who had resigned for the same reason. The consultants found no evidence because they did not talk to the people who made the complaints. There is a reign of terror at the college. I would like a debate so that we can talk about what is in the report and deal with the political issues. The Minister for Education and Science recently said that the college’s hard-working staff are producing teachers of a quality that is unmatched in half of Europe, despite all the pressures on them. The staff of the college need the support of the House and a vote of confidence. I would like a debate on the matter to be arranged at an early stage.
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Marino College
02/03/06 - The situation in the Marino Institute of Education was raised on a number of occasions during the past year. The House should be aware of the fact that recently a supposedly independent report was commissioned and paid for by the trustees and board of the institute, which amazingly found them to have acted absolutely correctly all the way through, which surprised all of us. The reality is that the culture of secrecy continues in the institute. This report, which is supposed to vindicate the board, rubbish the staff and cast aspersions on the Department of Education and Science is not to be made available to anybody, including the Minister for Education and Science. That is completely unacceptable. Irrespective of views on this matter and the rights and wrongs involved, the so-called independent report should at least be published. If it is independent why should it not be made available?
The same group who said that there was no systemic bullying in the institution are the group who settled for a figure approaching or more than €500,000 on all counts on charges of 50 bullying cases. Those two scenarios cannot co-exist. Having settled the case for 50 allegations of bullying and then saying there was no bullying is not acceptable.
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Teaching Council
23/02/06 - My first lecture in economics began with the statement that the basis of a good economy is a healthy, educated young population. This is the basis of everything else. This is not to say that teachers take all the credit for the Celtic tiger, it is not that simple. It is a question of society, in all its aspects, advancing through education.
The campaign to establish the Teaching Council was driven by teachers. To those who say teachers are worried about accountability, I reply that they have always wanted their profession to be regulated properly. Teachers at all levels have been seeking this initiative for many years and welcome it. In the past year, teachers and their unions have bought into the concept of whole school evaluation and published reports in this regard. Teachers say they have nothing to hide and are proud of what they do, and the evaluations demonstrate what they do. They have also bought into the idea of a teaching council as an oversight body to monitor their work.
I listened to the debate in the Dáil and found it discouraging, painful and extraordinarily negative.I do not know from where it came. The teaching profession is setting up a teaching council that will deal with all the relevant issues, including qualifications and the pre-training and postgraduate training of teachers. This represents a bonus to society. Consideration is being given to the following: continuing professional development and its benefits to teachers, pupils and society; ethics and codes of conduct, including the question of how teachers should behave; the checks and balances that exist; and new international developments so we can ensure we are leaders in terms of global best practice. As part of the establishment of the Teaching Council, we are also considering the present and future recognition of teachers and how they fit within the school structures. All these positive initiatives are being taken and the community is being given confidence in the teaching profession, yet all I heard in the other House was Members asking how teachers could be sacked.
There is one simple answer - one sacks a teacher as one sacks anybody else. If teachers do not do their work they can be put out the door following due process. That is the end of that discussion. The Teaching Council will withdraw recognition, where required, in a proper and balanced way. I have not the slightest doubt that the members of the council will do their job professionally, responsibly and equitably and that there will be full accountability. This council represents a very important step in terms of what we should be seeking for the future.
It is also right that we make demands of our teachers, and that is why we can do what we are doing today with confidence. We are considering setting up new educational structures for people who are dealing with extraordinary societal change, as politicians know better than most. Society has been turned over in the past ten years and teachers are dealing with the consequent difficulties every day as they arise in the classroom. They have to deal with the increased levels of violence and crime in the community about which politicians hear in clinics and by telephone. They have to cope with problems which result from drug use, abuse and misuse. Every problem that is found in the community arrives in the classroom on Monday mornings.
I am leading up to the major point I would like to make about the Teaching Council. My colleagues on all sides of the House recognise that the Teaching Council will be a successful body. Can the Minister of State press a button in the Department of Education and Science to ensure that the Teaching Council will be allowed to act as an independent body? We should invest our trust in the council by allowing it to do as it sees fit. I accept that over-arching controls should be in place, but there is no need for the council to have to seek the approval of the Minister at every hand’s turn, as it has to do at present.
If there are problems with its work, we can rein it in, but we should let it off for the time being. The people involved in the council have enthusiasm, energy, knowledge, professionalism and commitment. They can make it work. They are providing great leadership. The best of people are involved in the council. We should trust them to deliver an even better teaching profession than the great teaching profession we have at the moment.
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Third Level Education
22/02/06 - It is crucial for future competitiveness that this sector (third level institutions) is able to develop research and development at doctoral level. The Fottrell report’s proposals on third level education must be implemented. I ask the Minister of State to note this and ensure the institutes of technology are given a central role in this regard.
On the medical issue, what is the position with regard to a solid proposal made by the University of Limerick to increase intake to the colleges next year? I hope university or third level politics are not the reason it appears to have been pooh-poohed.
The Ministers for Education and Science and Health and Children gave a commitment, w
Each speech listed here is an edited speech. If you'd like to see the speech or debate in full, please go to the Oireachtas website and click on "Seanad Eireann" and then "Seanad Debates" and click on the relevant date as listed with each speech on this page.
Schools Building Projects (23/04/08)
Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act (EPSEN Act) (09/04/08)
School Building Process (13/03/08)
Schools Building Projects (11/03/08)
Autism and Special Education (05/03/08)
School Funding and Building (28/02/08)
Special Education (20/02/08)
Special Education – Autism (19/02/08)
The EPSEN Act (06/02/08)
Children with Autism and The EPSEN Act (30/01/08)
Withdrawal of School Summer Projects Scheme (13/12/07)
Minister of Education- Lack of Balance (13/12/07)
Budget 2008 Statements – Education (05/12/07)
Education Statements (22/11/07)
DIT and Irish Research Electronic Library (21/11/07)
Third Level Grants - SSIA Penalties (17/10/07)
Gaelige Immersionn in Schools (04/10/07)
Teacher Vetting (27/09/07)
Special Education (27/09/07)
Education for Children with Special Needs (04/04/07)
SSIA Interest Regarded as Income for 3rd Level Grants (12/10/06)
Institutes of Technology Bill (05/07/06)
Adult and Further Education(21/06/06)
Comprehensive Funding(20/06/06)
Closure by Christian Brothers of Inchicore School (27/04/06)
Teaching Council (28/03/06)
Marino College (07/03/06)
Marino College (02/03/06)
Teaching Council (23/02/06)
Third Level Education (22/02/06)
Educational Services (15/02/06)
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Schools Building Projects
23/04/08 - The proposal I am making involves something slightly different from what we usually do during the school building process. I am calling on the Government to put in place a project management procedure that I can understand. There is a need to publish the precise criteria and weightings under which schools qualify for building projects. The Government should introduce a tracking procedure whereby projects can be tracked through the various stages of the process. I ask the Minister to establish an internal and external quality assurance audit of school building procedures and to publish the results. The Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General should be asked to carry out a value for money audit. A stock inventory of primary schools infrastructure, including the number of temporary and permanent buildings, should be carried out by the Office of Public Works or some other body. The Committee of Public Accounts should be required to scrutinise the equality and fairness of the procedures for awarding school building grants. Future schools building projects should be advanced - fast-tracked, where necessary - through the Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Act 2006.
… When I decided to examine where the Government stands on these issues, I found that an “organisational review programme” has been established by the Department of the Taoiseach. The programme involves a new way of managing the delivery of customer service at departmental level, an examination of the question of governance at departmental level and an evaluation of performance measurement and customer and stakeholder feedback. Is a similar approach being taken in the building section of the Department of Education and Science? Is there a system of customer feedback on performance in the Department? When I visited the Department’s website, I learned that it has a change management unit and that a customer action programme was in operation between 2004 and 2007. The plan sets estimated response times for customers, stakeholders and clients who have queries. It sets out the Department’s commitment to informing customers of the standards they should expect at the point of service. Under the plan, stakeholders should be given an idea of the standards of service they should receive and the estimated time it should take to process applications for main services.
That is what the Department of Education and Science says it should be doing. The Minister, Deputy Hanafin, should take responsibility for it. I am not trying to initiate a personal attack on her. I am absolutely agitated about this issue. The way things are being done is wrong - it should not be like that. If the Department lived up to the standards it has set, I would not be wasting the House’s time tonight. The Department’s stated intention is to monitor its achievement in meeting its targets and to review progress regularly. It aims to set standard response times to be achieved by its school building service and to inform its customers of such standards, but that is not happening. I would be happy if the Minister were to tell me that such standards are to be achieved, and if public representatives could find information on behalf of school authorities or tell such authorities where information can be accessed.
I do not know what level of governance we have in terms of internal audit and quality assurance systems. I want to have in place what almost every other public body has, namely, a quality assurance scheme where an internal and external auditor take a number of projects, in this case schools building projects, follow them through from start to finish and check whether they follow established and agreed procedures and timelines. In terms of how an internal audit review should be carried out, these procedures and timelines would be written on the website of the Department of Finance. The audit review should examine whether these are followed step by step, where a project goes wrong and value for money issues. This governance is not in place.
…. I ask my colleagues on the Government side to take note that there is no mention of resources in my motion tonight. I deliberately did not include the issue of resources so that it would not be necessary for people to tell me what the Government is spending. Whether there is €1 million, €1 billion or €10 billion to be expended, the issues I set out in my motion must be dealt with.
It is disgraceful that the senior Minister in the Department in her response was not able to deal with the questions of audit - internal and external - of governance or of inventory, except in a passing reference to rented prefabricated buildings. That is the measure of the importance of the motion. It is disgraceful that whoever put the speech together in the Department could not even answer questions on simple issues.
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Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act (EPSEN Act)
09/04/08 - Apart from the Government’s amendment being bad and embarrassing, it is factually incorrect. For example, it is not true that the EPSEN Act is being implemented on a phased basis in line with the five-year timeframe envisaged. That is not happening. .. The background to it was that ordinary people found themselves going to the highest courts in the land to gain the right to education for their children. As soon as their cases reached the higher courts, the Government either crumbled or lodged an appeal to the Supreme Court. It was wrong whichever way it went and this legislation resulted.
It is simple and it means where a child is considered by school authorities as requiring special needs, they ask for an assessment. .. At every stage, provision is made for appeals by parents, schools and a number of other bodies. Everything is belt and braces and it is superb legislation. It is so good that I travelled to teacher centres around the country and proposed to teachers that they should not worry about the legislation and they should support it because it would be a positive development. It was positive but the Government has walked away from it.
.. When the Minister for Education and Science passed the legislation, she forwarded it to the NCSE saying she wanted it implemented in a five-year timeframe. We all agreed that was reasonable, even though we all wanted it implemented the next day. The NCSE produced a superb, professional report outlining 42 actions relating to the implementation of the legislation. The report reflected the views of every group involved in special education, including parents, management, school boards, teachers and other professionals. …. Everything was done and this was presented to the Government in the autumn of 2006. The programme was to begin in December 2006.
… I probably know more about this Act than anybody else in the House. I do not state this from a position of arrogance. I have gone through it many times. I spoke about this in Navan, Sligo, Monaghan, Wexford, Carlow and on several occasions in Dublin. I met teachers everywhere who had grave doubts about it. I stated it is the way forward. I told them it is my utopian approach to how we should deal with special educational needs. The Government put it together and everybody welcomed it. It has not happened and it is a disgrace. It is a further disgrace that the impending amendment to the Act does not mention how it will be implemented.
… Each step is open to appeal by parents. Parents such as those we discussed here who went to the High Court, such as the family from Wicklow or the Supreme Court, such as the family from Cork, would not have needed to do so because they would have been involved from point one. They could have made their case to the school, the National Council for Special Education or one of the appeals bodies attaching to the council. At least they would have been recognised all the way through. By the time it reached a court, a judge could state that in all reasonableness, it had gone through the system, the professionals had done their very best, everything had been done according to plan and everybody must live with it.Instead, parents are fighting and shouting.
Today, a group from a special post-primary school Dundalk was outside the gates of Leinster House. The school deals with children with mild mental handicaps, rather than use any politically correct language. They wanted their children to learn domestic science and other practical subjects. They were seeking extra hours. Where have we reached as a society? Perhaps they cannot do Latin or geometry. However, these children can learn a great deal. We can give them skills and help and support them. Parents are outside our gate 12 years into the Celtic tiger looking for a couple of extra hours of support a week.
…. Fine Gael and other parties gave a great welcome to this Act. We are appalled that we have seen nothing happen with regard to its implementation since the day it was passed.
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School Building Process
13/03/08 - In recent months, 13 Members have, on different occasions, raised issues to do with the schools building programme and related matters. The responses we receive to these queries are exactly the same in all cases, being merely a restatement of what the school authorities already know. The entire process is a model of procrastination. It seems a structure has been established to prevent us obtaining information on where schools stand on the priority list. That is not good enough.
This issue should be dealt with by the Committee of Public Accounts and the Comptroller and Auditor General. I call for a value for money audit not of the money being spent but of the process that schools must go through in dealing with the Department when they seek an extension, additional classroom or new school. What is going on would not be tolerated in any other structure in the public or private sector.
School authorities are informed of their entitlements and put on a list, but the list changes without any information being conveyed to the schools in question. Attempts to obtain information represent an appalling waste of time and effort. Ordinary people in communities are being given the run-around by the Department, as are Members on all sides of the House. The priority list must provide a clear indication of where schools stand and allow them to see when their position changes. Moreover, reasons must be given when one school is gazumped by another.
I do not want the Minister to come to the House only to deliver a long, confusing speech that leaves us less informed than we were before. This issue must be dealt with at a higher level. I do not issue an idle threat in signalling my intention to follow through on this. I will write to the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Committee of Public Accounts if I do not receive a response on this. There must be a quality audit of procedures in the buildings section of the Department of Education and Science. The current situation is simply not good enough.
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Schools Building Projects
Dromclough NS, Listowel & Rahan NS, Mallow.
11/03/08 - Both schools have experienced various problems for many years. Of concern to both schools is their position on the Department’s list. The Department’s school building programme is based on various stages …. Two problems arise, namely, the Department regularly changes the stages of development and there is no clear transparency in this regard. Schools must be kept informed of their position on the list and of their progress from year to year.
The problem is that the school (Dromclough) has been waiting more than two years for a site visit and is having difficulty obtaining information through Tullamore and the various press offices. When one phones the building section, one is told it communicates only with the Minister’s office and when one rings the Minister’s office one is told to ring the building section. This has happened. I have a record of it in my office. I spoke to a person in the building section and was told to take up the matter with the Minister’s office. When I contacted that office I was told to take up the matter with the building section and the person in the Minister’s office with whom I spoke then put me through to the same person in the building section who earlier could not deal with my query. The system is a nonsense. We have complained about procedures in the HSE on various occasions, but I have outlined what is happening in this Department. I should not have to raise this matter here. I should know exactly what is the position in regard to these school projects, what will happen next in the process, when the next stage will occur and what is the likely stage of projects in the process. That is simply not happening.
We need to know the reason Drumclough national school has been waiting one and half years for a technical team visit, and the names and locations all the schools on the list awaiting a technical visit. The Minister usually appoints such a team at the beginning of each year, but we do not know the exact date of that proposed technical visit. We do not know why the school was not assessed, when it will be assessed, who will assess it and where it will be ranked on the list. I could go on about the position of this school.
Rahan national school has a problem of rat infestation and a school building issue. The project is at stage 1, preliminary level, but it should be processed to stage 2 because it has been designated as a school that needs to accommodate the requirements of a principal and eight teachers. Why has a stop been put to the school’s progressing to the next stage of project? The board of management had an open discussion with the Department of Education and Science in Tullamore last month about the position, but the Department would not commit on the position. It has said that a ministerial decision is required and that the project is subject to funding, whatever that means at this stage.
The difficulty is how the schools progress from step to step in this process. Members should not have to raise the case of three or four schools on the Adjournment every week. We should know where schools are on the list of projects and the schools that move up the list. Such a list should be no different from an accident and emergency list, a waiting list to see a consultant or to have an operation. The position should be clear and projects should move from one stage of the process to the other. Transparency is needed in this process.
….. What the Minister of State has told me in good faith is that the next step for these schools is the appointment of a design team and that this will be considered as the school building programme is rolled over the coming months. That is stated as if this process started today, but it went on all last year and the year prior to that.The applications have been agreed and the next step is for them to be considered as the school building programme is rolled out. There is no honesty in this system. … It is not an efficient business model by which to operate and it is utterly depressing.
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Autism and Special Education
05/03/08 - Last night’s meeting between members of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party and the Minister for Education and Science has been widely reported. I hope it went well. Given the smiles on their faces this morning, Fianna Fáil Senators appear to have been reassured, bought in or whatever is the appropriate term. I ask that the House be given a report of the meeting outlining what new plans the Minister has in store.
What secrets on autism and other issues must be related at a private meeting and kept from the rest of us? The issue is whether new information is available of which we all need to be made aware. I want to know what those attending the meeting were told about the implementation of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act. Having discussed this issue several weeks ago, Senators are no wiser about when the legislation will be commenced.
The Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act must be commenced as soon as possible. Parents are involved immediately when a child’s assessment takes place, the psychological report is drawn up and resources are planned. They know from the beginning what their child may need. Without being critical of parents, many of them have observed that ABA systems work perfectly for some children with autism. However, they may not work for all children with the condition and it is possible that people are being misled in this debate because it has focused on ABA rather than autism and the wider issue of the implementation of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act. As I have stated previously, until this legislation is commenced, parents and professionals will not know what are the real needs of children with special needs. It is appalling that the legislation has not yet been implemented.
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School Funding and Building
28/02/08 - .. this Government promised during the election that the capitation grant for primary schools would be doubled but this has not happened. This is the outcome. Parents and teachers met around the country, organised by the INTO, prior to the last election. Meeting various groups, the Government gave a commitment to the rise but there is no sign of it. Schools are now skimping and scraping trying to make ends meet and managing schools on a shoestring but they are not succeeding. They cannot make available what is supposed to be available. It is time we saw exactly how schools are doing their business and how schools cannot be run on the amount of money available.
There should be a priority list of schools designated for building work or new schools this year. It should be open, transparent and available. We should see it when it is published and it should continue. People might not be aware a list is put together one year and if it is not completed, a new list is drawn up the next year with no reference to the schools prioritised the previous year. Everyone in this House has been lobbied by some school or other for information wanting to know where it stands on the list and when the building work is likely to happen. There are nine stages and schools are held back at every one of them, not knowing how to get to the next point or where the blockage exists. It is appalling.
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Special Education
20/02/08 - Tomorrow’s debate on education for persons with special educational needs should raise a number of interesting issues. ….. we should recognise the story in last night’s news of an empty school facility for autistic children and an autistic child who cannot get in. The school in question has stated that the facility cannot open owing to a lack of therapists but the Minister argued that the school should enrol the child for educational purposes only. We must add to this to the fact the Ó Cuanacháin family is facing bankruptcy because of having to go through an appeal in the courts. I was happy to praise the Minister for Education and Science yesterday for what she has done. However, there is a simple answer to this. The reason the Ó Cuanacháins are facing bankruptcy and the reason there are empty classrooms in Castleknock is very simple. It is that the Minister has not yet commenced certain provisions of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004.
Every speaker tomorrow should ask the Minister to explain herself. They should simply ask one question. Why has she not commenced the relevant sections of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act, which has been approved by both Houses and signed into law by the Government and which would solve all these problems? If this was done there no longer would be an argument. These sections would decide the matter of therapists and education and the question of the appeals structure. Parents would have the right to appeal at every level. The Act provides for appeals, assessment, resources and implementation. It is all in it.
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Special Education – Autism
19/02/08 - We will have a long debate on Thursday on the Education of Persons with Special Educational Needs Act. I have been a great critic of the Minister for Education and Science with regard to the lack of movement on that issue and the fact it has not been commenced and moneys have not been provided. I have also been a constant critic with regard to the lack of support for special education. However, I would like to clarify one thing. Fair is fair and of all the Ministers for Education and Science we have had over the past 20 years, no other Minister has put more into autism than the current Minister. It is not enough and I have disagreed with her, but in terms of the current row, she has done more than any Minister of the past 20 years on autism. I remember trying to convince Ministers 20 years ago that there was such a condition as autism. One might find that hard to believe, but there was a time when the Department would argue that it was a social and emotional need and not a specific condition.
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The EPSEN Act
06/02/08 - I do not want to make a mantra out of this matter. The legislation has been passed by the Houses of the Oireachtas and signed by the President, but has not been commenced. Ordinary people do not understand the reasons legislation, even when signed by the President, is not commenced by the relevant Minister. Members on both sides of the House are receiving calls on behalf of children with special needs. The Act recognises a special need, provides for a child to be assessed, involves all the professionals and insists on resources being made available. The resources are to applied at school or other level and regular reviews are take place. None of this has been done so far. The commencement strategy has been ignored. The Minister for Education and Science has had it on her desk for nearly one year. I call on her to come to the House to explain why the legislation to support children with special needs is still lying on a shelf in the Department and has not been implemented. It is an absolute disgrace.
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Children with Autism and The EPSEN Act
30/01/08 - The issue of the child with autism whose parents are faced with an extraordinary legal bill has seized public attention this week. I do not necessarily agree with what the parents are trying to do. I have told the House before I believe applied behavioural analysis, ABA, is a perfectly good system, but that the Department of Education and Science should have more eclectic arrangements in place. However, that is not the issue. The point is that the parents in question were acting constitutionally as prime educators of their child. They were driven to do something, as there was an imperative on them to do the best for their child. They had no option but to take the matter to its limit. They have done all of us a service by so doing. I am not arguing with the outcome in the courts. The courts came to a decision, right or wrong. However, it is wrong, unfair and undemocratic that these people are now being made bankrupt by fulfilling their constitutional responsibilities and imperatives.
The House passed the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act in 2004. I appealed at that stage for a commencement date to be included. The Minister refused and I was told that parts of the Act would be commenced over time. The Act allowed for the involvement of parents at the assessment stage of a child with educational needs. It provided for an appeal as part of the assessment. It then involved teachers, psychologists, other professionals and parents in the determination of the resources required and, again, the parents have an appeal process built into that.
In terms of the application of resources, it involved a series of professionals and allowed the parents to make appeals. There were to be three systems of appeal, which were accepted and promoted by the Government as an extraordinary commitment on the basis that there would never be a shortage of resources for children with special educational needs. The State’s refusal to commence the appropriate sections of the Education for People with Special Educational Needs Act, EPSEN, has driven these parents to go the route of the law as far as the Supreme Court to try to get what is best for their child. There would have been no need for them to have done so had we put in place what was passed by the Oireachtas. The Government’s failure to implement the appropriate sections, or 90%, of the EPSEN Act, means these parents are now in this quandary. We owe them something and I ask the Leader to bring it to them.
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Withdrawal of School Summer Projects Scheme
13/12/07 - The summer projects for schools is being ended. When schools needed work done on the buildings they needed to complete a complex procedure. People decided that it would be better if this could be done locally. A new system was set up. They could then manage it locally, with grants available. In order to do so, engineers’ reports, architects’ reports, builders’ reports and various other reports were needed before the schools qualified for a grant. It worked very well and efficiently, giving quality, value, local involvement and volunteerism. The Minister has pulled the plug on the scheme.
Not only are schools losing out by not having projects completed but they are losing money. They spent the last year getting engineers’ reports, architects’ reports, builders’ reports and various other reports in order to apply for the grant. This is counterproductive and does not save money. Schools will become run down, it will cost more next year and we must undergo the whole rigamarole again. I ask for the Minister to explain this to the House so that we can show her that this does not make economic sense, apart from the lack of education.
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Minister of Education- Lack of Balance
13/12/07 - The House will be aware that the Minister for Education and Science recently decided to circulate a copy of a book on the first president of Fianna Fáil to every school in Ireland. …. I do not object at all to the circulation of a well-written book, namely, Diarmuid Ferriter’s book on de Valera. That is not the issue here. The issue is that it can and is being perceived as showing a lack of balance. This is important. I fought for many years to get more books into schools so I am not going to argue in this House against sending books to schools. … I am looking at it in the interests of balance.
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Budget 2008 Statements – Education
05/12/07 - This budget is about broken promises. I do not have time to go into detail but I will focus on education, an issue in which I am closely involved. The increase in the allocation for the Department of Education and Science is appallingly small. At the Fianna Fáil Ard-Fheis, we were promised that the Government would double the capitation grant for primary schools. We were assured on numerous occasions that the pupil-teacher ratio would be reduced. Neither of these objectives has been achieved and their implementation will not be possible given the resources allocated.
In education provision, one does the sums and discovers there is an overall increase of less than 2%. This is an appalling increase. I emphasise that all the available funding will be used to build schools in the Pale. It will not be used to provide funding for the school I visited in Sligo last week. It will not address the difficulties experienced by the school in Ballina that I brought to the Minister’s attention last week. The money is simply not there. I am not saying this is a poor budget. My point is that many issues have not been addressed. For instance, schools will continue to have to raise funds. This is unacceptable given that the people involved in these schools were allowed by the Government to entertain certain expectations. Perhaps the way to deal with this is to admit that it cannot be done now but will be done next month or next year, but I have not heard that either.
The commitments given have not been delivered upon. The commitment to reduce class sizes cannot be fulfilled because adequate provision has not been made for the increased population of school-going children. Neither can the increase in the capitation grant be made. Thus, there will no significant improvement in primary education. This reality puts some perspective on the welcome initiatives in the budget.
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Education Statements
22/11/07 - Fáiltím roimh an Aire. … Ba mhaith liom a rá chomh maith go raibh rud ar an gclár inné that was mentioned by Senators Norris and Ormonde and me. It has come to our attention that the Dublin Institute of Technology, the largest third level institution in the country with 21,000 students, does not have access to the Irish Research eLibrary, IReL. The biggest third level institution is being kept out of the club by the universities. This is wrong and I ask the Minister to investigate.
Ba mhaith liom caint mar gheall ar rud eile atá pléite eadrainn cheana féin. Tá a fhios agam go bhfuil deacrachtaí éagsúla eadrainn mar gheall ar an tumoideachais. Tuigim cás an Aire ar an gceist seo. Nílim ag rá nach bhfuil aon merit ann — tá. Teastaíonn uaim an rud atá ar siúl againn ó thaobh na Ghaeilge de a mhiniú. I do not fall off the chair on this. Ní amháin go bhfuil aidhm oideachais i gceist — tá aidhmeanna polaitiúla agus cultúrtha i gceist freisin. In that regard, certain compromises have to be made. Tuigim an argóint atá a dhéanamh ag an Aire — gur chóir go mbeadh balance i gcuraclam na scoile. I agree, and I have fought for that all my life. That is why I have sympathy for the Minister’s position. Ar an dtaobh eile den scéal, tá na scoileanna seo ag iarraidh cuir i gcoinne an chultúr Béarla as a dtáinig na leanaí. They are trying to achieve a balance with the previous lives of the children. To that extent, tá sé an intinn ag na scoileanna go mbeadh na páistí tumtha agus sáite sa Ghaeilge ar feadh cúpla bliain, agus ansin tugtha thar n-ais go dtí an ghnáth-curaclam. Braithim go bhfuil an-argóint acu agus táim ar aon taobh leo. As the Minister knows, I have spent most of my life ag cogadh agus in full warfare leis na heagraisí Ghaeilge, ach an t-am seo caithfidh mé a rá go dtuigim an méid ata ar siúl acu and I agree with it.
What is happening with the school building fund? Tracking a school building project is like finding one’s way around a maze. My office is like a crime scene investigation at the moment. For example, a school received permission in 1998 for a building project and received another letter in 1999, but the project was moved from one section to another and the school must go on a new priority list every year. It is not working out in that sense.
When will we see the investment in information and communications technology in primary schools and in post-primary schools which was promised in the budget and which is on the Minister’s plan? As as far as I am aware, and I would be happy to be corrected on this, the money for it has not been put in place.
As we do not often get a chance to talk about the school curriculum because we are always in the trenches and at war, I want to look at it generally. If I could take over this island for a short period, I would rewrite the school curriculum.
An rud atá i gceist agam ná seo. An exercise I have tried with people on many occasions is to look at education in terms of serving the community and at the kind of community we now want. If one takes a group of people and asks them what qualities they want to see in the next generation of Irish political leaders, and takes another group and ask them what qualities they want to see in the next generation of Irish church leaders and if one does the same in the case of trade union leaders, business leaders, etc., they tend to come out with the same list. There are attributes such as creativity, risk taking, articulation, leadership, tolerance, mercy and others which one cannot measure and for which one cannot get points in the leaving certificate or in any examination.
We should have a clear objective of the kind of society we are trying to create and then ensure that somewhere along the way those issues are addressed in the curriculum. Cardinal Newman stated that the first quality of an educated person was tolerance. Where do we teach tolerance? I acknowledge that teachers and adults try to give good example. Where do we state, for example, that we tried at least to infuse that idea into people and where does it come into the curriculum? There should be an element of that in the curriculum.
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DIT and Irish Research Electronic Library
21/11/07 - Senator Mark Daly brought to my attention the fact that the Dublin Institute of Technology, the largest third level college in the country, does not have access to the Irish Research Electronic Library initiative, while the seven universities do. That is disgraceful. There is no case for excluding the DIT. It smacks of an elite cabal of senior educationalists keeping the institute out. It means the institute cannot conduct its research and turns on its head all Government policy on developing research in the education and other areas. The Minister for Education and Science should explain to the House how this will be resolved.
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Third Level Grants - SSIA Penalties
17/10/07 - We receive numerous queries on this matter and a new issue is that recently retired people are deprived of grants for their student children because they were prudent enough to have saved for an SSIA. The Government addition to the SSIA is taken into consideration and people are deprived of grants. To make a bad decision worse, the withholding tax is not taken into consideration and is included in the calculation which deprives their children of a grant.
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Gaelige Immersionn in Schools
04/10/07 - Tá rud amháin eile gur cóir di (Aire Oideachais agus Eolaíochta) a phlé linn chomh maith, an t-achrann atá ar siúl faoi láthair idir Ghaelscoileanna agus an Aire féin maidir le múineadh na Gaeilge sna scoileanna sin. An modh atá in úsáid faoi láthair ná tum-oideachas, an immersion method of teaching. Is modh múinte é atá in úsáid ar fud an domhain — there is nothing different about it. It is a perfectlly sustainable and correct method.
Ar an dtaobh eile den scéal, tá an tAire a rá gur cóir go mbeadh Béarla ar am-chlár na scoileanna chomh maith. Her worry is that if it is just complete immersion in Gaelinn without any formal teaching of english, that does not reflect the timetable. Tá mise ar thaobh na nGaelscoileanna san argóint seo, cé go dtuigim go bhfuil argóint láidir ag an Aire. Ba bhreá liom go bpléifidh sí é anseo linn. The Minister is in a perfectly understandable position. I do not fully agree with her on it, but I accept the strength of her arguments. Ba chóir go mbeidh díospóireacht againn ar an ábhar seo agus tuiscint againn ar cad tá ar siúl. Ní hé go bhfuil aon duine mícheart ach caithfimid teacht ar an seift is fearr do dhaltaí na scoileanna sin.
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Teacher Vetting
27/09/07 - There was a great brouhaha among politicians during the summer, myself included, about a lecturer in Athlone who was involved in an abuse case. I do not want to refer to that particular case, but during the debate the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, with responsibility for children, made it clear that he would be enacting vetting legislation which would be welcomed by people working in child care, teachers and the Teaching Council. However, there are many political difficulties to this and the Minister of State should deal with that.
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Special Education
27/09/07 - The Bill (Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004) was passed through both Houses with acclaim on the basis that it would finally provide the resources necessary to allow people with special needs to reach their full potential. The guarantee given was that this would allow schools to do their work, would allow parents to be relieved of much of the pressure of fundraising and so on, and that the appropriate resources would be put in place between psychologists, psychiatrists and other therapists.
In order to put that in place, the Government established the National Council for Special Education, which is based in County Meath and is a very effective and impressive organisation. At the request of the Minister, it produced an implementation programme with three pages on implementations, the costing and timeframe for each one. The first implementation was to be made in December 2006. I would now like the Minister for Education and Science to explain what has happened to that timetable, why it is not being supported and why schools are now back in their position and are not able to deal with children with special needs. This causes trouble for parents, school authorities and everyone else.
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Education for Children with Special Needs
04/04/07 - The Leader will recall that over recent years there has been much brouhaha and a great welcome for the education for persons with special educational needs legislation. The commitment was given by Government that this would be fully supported and provided for and that people with special learning needs would be looked after. This Act is now in place and the National Council for Special Educational Needs has been established. Last December this council presented the Minster with an outline of timelines and milestones for the implementation of the Act and it is appalling this has not been achieved. Section 13 of the Act provides the funding but I cannot find out what has been done. I do not know what is the level of training but I know that schools are having more trouble than ever before in accessing educational psychologists. The timelines are not being adhered to.
…. This seems to be an old-fashioned vision without provision effort by the Minister if she cannot deliver. I ask that the House be fully informed whether there is a serious commitment from Government in the area of special education.
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SSIA Interest Regarded as Income for 3rd Level Grants
12/10/06 - It is not good enough for the Minister to claim that only a small number of people will be affected because the issue will affect families which have skimped and scraped over a number of years to save for an SSIA in the hope that the resulting bonus would help send their children to college. Now, however, the reward for their efforts is the loss of the grant. However small the number concerned, who among us wants to explain that our political decision has sent a family backwards? It is an unacceptable situation.
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Institutes of Technology Bill
05/07/06 - I welcome this legislation, for which I have often called. The Bill brings the institutes of technology under the remit of the HEA by removing the Department’s power in that regard. The most negative aspect of the OECD report was that it recommended doctoral level research to be confined to universities, which was an appallingly bad call. I welcome that the Government ignored it and that, in his Budget Statement, the Minister for Finance announced that such research would take place throughout the third level sector. I look forward to that crucial provision. Through it, we can tie research, technology and development to the commercial world. We can take research and apply it, particularly to the marketplace.
For 15 years I have been complaining about how little we spend on research and development. While the figure has been improved time and again, our spending remains low in European terms. The seed capital provided by the Government to third level education is important, but approximately €200 million of that is provided to universities while only a couple of million euro is provided to the institutes of technology. This is unfair and lacks equity. Will the Minister of State address this matter?
One sentence in the Minister of State’s speech summarises the proposals. She said the Bill would allow greater managerial freedom to respond to the opportunities and challenges of supporting regional and national social and economic development. The rest of the speech was not necessary because that sums up how the institutes of technology can be developed. If that is allowed to happen they can provide a constant output of doctoral level graduates, which is crucial to the world of research and development. We do not yet understand that research must take place at every level. While solid research has been carried out in colleges and universities in recent years the level of research must grow. Most has been at graduate or post-graduate level but our economy now needs doctoral level research to progress and the institutes of technology can give us that.
The institutes of technology can also strengthen the regional and sectoral involvement in the innovation infrastructure of the country, which is crucially important. They can enable industry-led technology to guide the collaboration of industry-led technology and to focus on medium-term research and technology issues. People can come with an idea and it can be progressed to the point where it can be brought forward to the market place.
I have studiously avoided talking about the Bill because it is, in the main, something with which we are all in agreement. I want to look beyond the Bill and consider the next stage in the process. We must allow it to bridge the gaps among research, education, teaching, knowledge and epistemology and tie them all together in a pragmatic way and in a way that is academically based.
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Adult and Further Education
21/06/2007 - This issue is a source of serious anxiety. Whenever one speaks to people on the ground regarding this area of education, the first thing they mention is the McIver report. There are elements of the McIver report about which I have some questions. I would debate further education centres. I try to view things in the round, determining how the sector might advance in parallel with other aspects of society.
Everyone will know whom I mean when I speak of a man who came before committees perhaps once a month over the past ten years. I am referring to the former head of IFSRA, who retired on 1 February this year. He moved the organisation from being the Central Bank to a new role. I crossed swords with him in many different contexts and recognised and respected his contribution. I met him the week after he had retired and asked him what he would do with himself. He said that he had enrolled in college, where he would begin a postgraduate degree in pure physics. That is what we need to hear. Those are the success stories, and there is great demand for such services. I want to move that forward and examine what we could and should be doing.
I could make the same point regarding teachers in peripheral areas, who I know would like to study further. Many of them use the Open University. I do not know how one could make it accessible in a supportive way, with grants and so on for people around the country, but it offers a useful way forward. It is crucial that we open up to people, showing them what is available and allowing them to obtain qualifications and move on. It is now possible to gain professional qualifications on-line.
Another area is that of arts and culture. If one was to visit the National Concert Hall on a Saturday night, one would discover that the audience is upper middle-class. Why is this the case? At one stage, fine writers such as Brendan Behan and Seán O’Casey emerged from the ranks of the artisan, craft and trades classes. However, this is no longer the case. This is not the way it should be. People must believe and understand that art is … part of further education and the appreciation of our culture.
We must constantly connect further and adult education with developments in the wider world. Therefore, it must be tied into broadband and IT and the needs, policies and issues of the day so that ordinary people begin to see how waste might be managed and object to ridiculous proposals. I want people to be immersed in cultural activities if they so wish. Every apprenticeship should include a period of time spent examining drama or music because it would unlock a considerable amount of energy……. I conclude by thanking the Minister of State for her continued commitment to adult and further education. The real measure will not be our words but the ticking off of the recommendations in the McIver report as they are being implemented.
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Comprehensive Funding
20/06/06 - I welcome, as we all should, the decision announced by the Government at the weekend to invest millions of euro in research and development in third and fourth level education. However, it is difficult to relate it to the group standing outside Leinster House today representing a 16 year old school with 250 pupils, which cannot get a school site or approval from the Department of Education and Science.
Education must begin at the first step of the ladder. If a successful and well-run school which is conducting its business properly, such as Gaelscoil Sáirséal in the Cathaoirleach’s county of Limerick, cannot get support on these kinds of issues, there is no point going to the top deck. The Minister should explain to the House how we will have a run all the way through, so a viable school will get the support to which it is entitled.
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Closure by Christian Brothers of Inchicore School
27/04/06 - Yesterday, Senators referred to the importance of St. Michael’s CBS, Inchicore, which is located in a highly-underprivileged area. I did not intervene in the debate because I wished to check something. I believe the Christian Brothers are closing the operation because the school is situated on two acres of prime development land. We are walking away from a highly-underprivileged, disadvantaged community for the sake of a small investment. We should discuss this. The Minister for Education and Science must abide by decisions of the management and school authorities, who seem determined to close the school, but she should support the appointment of an additional staff member. This is one of the most underprivileged areas, a fact I have been aware of for many years. The school has done Trojan work despite difficulties and opposition. It deserves our support.
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Teaching Council
28/03/06 - We have regularly discussed the Lisbon Agenda. The Heads of Government are meeting this week to discuss economic and other reform in Europe and progress on the agenda. The reality is outlined very well in this week’s Charlemagne column in The Economist. It states that we need what has been achieved in Finland, which is now a model for reform in the area. “TEACHERS, teachers, teachers” is the subtitle. It goes on to state that we can do it without examinations, a national curriculum, or testing. All we need is good teachers with the responsibility and freedom to get on with their work. To get good teachers, we must simply allow them professional responsibility and pay them well.
A good start has been made within the last hour in the announcement of the establishment of the Teaching Council, a move forward. Let us keep such matters to the forefront of our minds when considering discussions in Government Buildings on public service pay, benchmarking, the cost of teachers and so on. We are the beneficiaries. I particularly welcomed aspects of the report on third level education published by the OECD within the last year, especially since it finally accorded freedom to the institutes of technology by giving them annual grants through the Higher Education Authority. We bemoaned the fact that they had no access to doctorates, but that is now being addressed under the Government plan in the budget.
We must carefully consider how we can move matters forward positively. The only danger would be if we did not have a properly paid public service or failed to deal with the issues causing problems in France or affecting lower-paid migrant workers. There are issues to address, and the prize is as good now as last time.
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Marino College
07/03/06 - I asked the Leader last week to arrange a debate on the problems at Marino Institute of Education.The report on the matter that has been published rubbishes the college’s staff, anyone who has tried to sort out the difficulties and the Department of Education and Science. It seems that everyone is wrong except for the trustees of the college. It is time to consider this matter. The consultants were directed not to talk to the person with the main grievance, who was the main source of evidence, or to other people who had resigned for the same reason. The consultants found no evidence because they did not talk to the people who made the complaints. There is a reign of terror at the college. I would like a debate so that we can talk about what is in the report and deal with the political issues. The Minister for Education and Science recently said that the college’s hard-working staff are producing teachers of a quality that is unmatched in half of Europe, despite all the pressures on them. The staff of the college need the support of the House and a vote of confidence. I would like a debate on the matter to be arranged at an early stage.
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Marino College
02/03/06 - The situation in the Marino Institute of Education was raised on a number of occasions during the past year. The House should be aware of the fact that recently a supposedly independent report was commissioned and paid for by the trustees and board of the institute, which amazingly found them to have acted absolutely correctly all the way through, which surprised all of us. The reality is that the culture of secrecy continues in the institute. This report, which is supposed to vindicate the board, rubbish the staff and cast aspersions on the Department of Education and Science is not to be made available to anybody, including the Minister for Education and Science. That is completely unacceptable. Irrespective of views on this matter and the rights and wrongs involved, the so-called independent report should at least be published. If it is independent why should it not be made available?
The same group who said that there was no systemic bullying in the institution are the group who settled for a figure approaching or more than €500,000 on all counts on charges of 50 bullying cases. Those two scenarios cannot co-exist. Having settled the case for 50 allegations of bullying and then saying there was no bullying is not acceptable.
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Teaching Council
23/02/06 - My first lecture in economics began with the statement that the basis of a good economy is a healthy, educated young population. This is the basis of everything else. This is not to say that teachers take all the credit for the Celtic tiger, it is not that simple. It is a question of society, in all its aspects, advancing through education.
The campaign to establish the Teaching Council was driven by teachers. To those who say teachers are worried about accountability, I reply that they have always wanted their profession to be regulated properly. Teachers at all levels have been seeking this initiative for many years and welcome it. In the past year, teachers and their unions have bought into the concept of whole school evaluation and published reports in this regard. Teachers say they have nothing to hide and are proud of what they do, and the evaluations demonstrate what they do. They have also bought into the idea of a teaching council as an oversight body to monitor their work.
I listened to the debate in the Dáil and found it discouraging, painful and extraordinarily negative.I do not know from where it came. The teaching profession is setting up a teaching council that will deal with all the relevant issues, including qualifications and the pre-training and postgraduate training of teachers. This represents a bonus to society. Consideration is being given to the following: continuing professional development and its benefits to teachers, pupils and society; ethics and codes of conduct, including the question of how teachers should behave; the checks and balances that exist; and new international developments so we can ensure we are leaders in terms of global best practice. As part of the establishment of the Teaching Council, we are also considering the present and future recognition of teachers and how they fit within the school structures. All these positive initiatives are being taken and the community is being given confidence in the teaching profession, yet all I heard in the other House was Members asking how teachers could be sacked.
There is one simple answer - one sacks a teacher as one sacks anybody else. If teachers do not do their work they can be put out the door following due process. That is the end of that discussion. The Teaching Council will withdraw recognition, where required, in a proper and balanced way. I have not the slightest doubt that the members of the council will do their job professionally, responsibly and equitably and that there will be full accountability. This council represents a very important step in terms of what we should be seeking for the future.
It is also right that we make demands of our teachers, and that is why we can do what we are doing today with confidence. We are considering setting up new educational structures for people who are dealing with extraordinary societal change, as politicians know better than most. Society has been turned over in the past ten years and teachers are dealing with the consequent difficulties every day as they arise in the classroom. They have to deal with the increased levels of violence and crime in the community about which politicians hear in clinics and by telephone. They have to cope with problems which result from drug use, abuse and misuse. Every problem that is found in the community arrives in the classroom on Monday mornings.
I am leading up to the major point I would like to make about the Teaching Council. My colleagues on all sides of the House recognise that the Teaching Council will be a successful body. Can the Minister of State press a button in the Department of Education and Science to ensure that the Teaching Council will be allowed to act as an independent body? We should invest our trust in the council by allowing it to do as it sees fit. I accept that over-arching controls should be in place, but there is no need for the council to have to seek the approval of the Minister at every hand’s turn, as it has to do at present.
If there are problems with its work, we can rein it in, but we should let it off for the time being. The people involved in the council have enthusiasm, energy, knowledge, professionalism and commitment. They can make it work. They are providing great leadership. The best of people are involved in the council. We should trust them to deliver an even better teaching profession than the great teaching profession we have at the moment.
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Third Level Education
22/02/06 - It is crucial for future competitiveness that this sector (third level institutions) is able to develop research and development at doctoral level. The Fottrell report’s proposals on third level education must be implemented. I ask the Minister of State to note this and ensure the institutes of technology are given a central role in this regard.
On the medical issue, what is the position with regard to a solid proposal made by the University of Limerick to increase intake to the colleges next year? I hope university or third level politics are not the reason it appears to have been pooh-poohed.
The Ministers for Education and Science and Health and Children gave a commitment, w