Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. First of all, the Government and the Minister for Education are very aware of shortages of teachers affecting many schools around the country. We know that from time to time - too frequently - it means a special education teacher being assigned to a regular class and that impacts negatively on the child with special education needs. We understand there is a very real issue here. It is important to see it against a backdrop in which the number of teaching posts has increased considerably, the pupil-teacher ratio is as low as it has ever been and the number of teachers registered with the Teaching Council, far from having gone down, has in fact gone up in recent years. It must be seen in the context of a country that is now experiencing full employment. That is a great thing - a job for everyone who wants one - but, of course, it can have negative consequences too. It is not that staff shortages are unique to education; far from it. If the Deputy talks to any employer anywhere in the country, they will tell her how difficult it is to recruit and retain staff. It is the public sector and private sector, big business and small business, and well-paid jobs and poorly paid jobs. We will not properly understand the problems we face if that is not understood and fully acknowledged.

In terms of pay and conditions for public servants, such as teachers, they are negotiated between unions and the Government. We have a pay deal. It was voted for by teachers in good numbers and was implemented and resulted in a pay rise, most recently in October. Negotiations will begin in the next couple of weeks with public sector unions around the next round of pay increases. I am confident we will come to an agreement and that will go to a ballot of public servants, including teachers, as soon as an agreement can be made.

When it comes to the housing situation and the housing shortage more generally, this is a Government that is making real progress. I know the Deputy will struggle to acknowledge it but nobody can deny the facts we are seeing on the ground - the new homes and apartments being built all over the country. Just look at the numbers. In the past 12 months, we have numbers suggesting 30,000 or more new homes being built. That is 50% more than when this Government came to office, more than double the number when I became Taoiseach in 2017 and four times the number being built when my party came to office in 2011. You can only ramp up house building so quickly, unless you do not want to build houses properly. If you want to build houses and apartments properly, you can only ramp it up so quickly. It has quadrupled since 2011, is up 50% since this Government came to office and will go higher again next year.

What is particularly encouraging is to see a huge increase in the number of first-time buyers, with more than 500 first-time buyers a week now drawing down their mortgage. Of course, the real figure is much higher because we count couples as one when we look at those numbers. We have not seen that in 16 years. My concern with the Deputy's party is it wants to roll the clock back on that. It wants to take away the help we are providing for first-time buyers like those young teachers she mentioned. Most of them want to buy; they do not want to have to rent for too long. The Deputy's party wants to take that help away. It wants to take away the first-time buyer's grant, the first home scheme and so much help that is out there now for first-time buyers. They would be worse off under Sinn Féin and that is clear to anyone who looks at the facts.

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