2011 General Election and Minister For Education
In September, 2010, Quinn was appointed the Labour Party's national director of elections for the 2011 General Election by Gilmore. He had been selected along with Cllr Kevin Humphreys to be a candidate for Labour in that election. Both Quinn and Humphreys were elected to the 31st Dail on 27 February 2011, by clever vote management that saw the Labour Party in Dublin South–East secure two seats with only a quarter of the first preference vote.
On 9 March 2011 Quinn was appointed as Minister for Education and Skills in the new Fine Gael-Labour coalition government.
In April 2011 Quinn confirmed his support for the radical overhaul of the Junior Certificate, which had been put in train by his predecessor, saying the exam is “no longer suitable as the main form of student assessment in lower-secondary education’’ and must be changed.
In May 2011 Quinn confirmed a u-turn on a pre-election pledge, made less than 100 days earlier to student voters and their parents, that he would reverse a proposed increase in third level student registration fees, instead providing for a €500 increase in the fee payable by students. In July 2011 Quinn has again refused to rule out the return of college fees as he acknowledged the funding crisis in the higher education sector. The Minister told a meeting of the Higher Education Authority (HEA) the funding crisis in higher education will “not go away” for many years to come. Asked if new charges were planned he said: “I honestly can’t say. We are looking for efficiencies in the system at third level. “I am not ruling anything in or out until we get into the detailed negotiations with the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Public Expenditure . . . I have said to Brendan Howlin that I will deliver.”
On the 10th March, 2012, Quinn became the Labour Party's longest ever serving Cabinet Minister passing out the tenure in office of Dick Spring.
In October 2012 Quinn said the the “demons of nationalism” and “chauvinism” embedded in our cultures will only stay under control if we have a deeper European culture, the Minister for Education told an audience at an anniversary celebration for St Kilian’s German school. The private school, in Clonskeagh, Dublin, celebrated its 60th anniversary, having been founded after the second World War to cater for child refugees from Germany. Between 1945 and 1946, Operation Shamrock, initiated by the Irish Red Cross, resettled over 400 children from postwar Germany, as well as from Austria, France, and England. Many of the children, some as young as three years old, had lost their parents in the war, while others had their homes destroyed. He went on to say "will only stay in the place where they belong if we have more Europe, if we have a deeper Europe, if we have a wider Europe".
Read more about this topic: Ruairi Quinn
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