Tánaiste approves €30m contract for St Patrick's College, Drumcondra [education.ie]
- Published: 14 July 2010
Building work is set to start on a new €30 million building project at St Patrick's College, Drumcondra, Dublin, after the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills, Mary Coughlan TD, approved the contract for the project this week.
The new 12,000sq/m facility, which includes new lecture theatres, libraries and offices, in addition to the refurbishment of 6,000sq/m of existing space, is expected to be finished in 2012.
Announcing the move, the Tánaiste said: 'This project will transform the campus in St Patrick’s College of Education and bring its facilities to a new level of state-of-the-art modernity.
'St Patrick's College has experienced strong demand for its programmes, which has resulted in student numbers more than doubling over the past decade.
'Enrolments have risen from 1,024 in the 1999/2000 academic year to 2,500 in 2009/2010.
Full Story: www.education.ie
Calls to improve children's rights [Independent.ie]
- Published: 13 July 2010
Ireland's leading children's watchdog has called for constitutional reform this year to improve children's rights.
Ombudsman for Children Emily Logan said urgent change was needed to provide more support for children in care and for improved access to healthcare.
She said gaps in law, policy and practice mean some children remain vulnerable and are not receiving the full support of the State.
Ms Logan said: "This report covers 2009, a year when, through the Ryan and Murphy reports, both the scale of child abuse and the culture of impunity was realised for the first time by many.
"These reports revealed that it is easier to violate the rights of people who are not socially powerful, something that continues to this day.
"I remain convinced that constitutional change is required to ensure that any new legislation puts the interests of children first."
Full Story: www.independent.ie
Revealed: Board's plans to save money this year [lisburntoday.co.uk]
- Published: 13 July 2010
The report, entitled 'Resource Allocation Plans 2010-11', reveals cuts proposed by the Board, including over £1 million in the budget for maintaining local schools and over £800,000 to the budget allocated for Special Schools.
The Board was quick to insist the plans had not been finalised and insisted it was a "working document". However, they confirmed the report has been submitted to the Department of Education for approval.
A spokesperson for the South Eastern Education and Library Board said: "This plan had been submitted to the Department of Education but has not yet been approved. There are ongoing discussions and revisions being made to this document. Therefore this should be regarded as a working document."
Full Story: www.lisburntoday.co.uk
13% rise in reports to Children's Ombudsman [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 13 July 2010
According to the 2009 annual report for the Ombudsman for Children, its office received 912 complaints in the year.
The report said these were among the issues children highlighted during 2009, where education was concerned:
- The risks of young people leaving school early due to families’ difficulties in meeting the costs of education;
Full Story: www.irishexaminer.com
Facebook introduces ‘panic button’ [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 13 July 2010
FACEBOOK has joined forces with a British child protection agency to create a "panic button" application on its site, it was announced yesterday, as the social networking giant finally gave in to calls to do more to protect youngsters online.
The application allows youngsters to report suspicious behaviour to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) and Facebook.
The launch of the service marks a turnaround for Facebook which initially resisted calls for a so-called panic button after the murder of a teenage girl in 2009 was linked to the site.
At the time, Facebook said its own protection mechanisms were sufficient.
Full Story: www.irishexaminer.com
