Ms Sally Maguire:

I will start with Deputy McConalogue's original question about the industrial relations issues relating to in-service. At the moment, the only in-service that is beginning is for English teachers and school leadership. We have instructed our members not to attend those in-service sessions. That is not happening for our members at the moment. My understanding is that they are going ahead with Teachers Union of Ireland, TUI, members but not our members.

That ties in with the questions from Senator Ó Clochartaigh and Senator O'Donnell about whether the Department was listening to us. It is astounding to think that the Department has not been listening to the practitioners up until now. Senator Ó Clochartaigh asked whether we were being sidelined because of our stance on the Haddington Road agreement. To be fair, I believe we are not. It is because of our stance on Haddington Road that the implementation group is starting. I am hopeful that we will be listened to this time.

If not, we are in a very serious state. Not only teachers, but management bodies and everybody else all say the same thing. We hope that we will be listened to now.

The in-service training is definitely not where it needs to be. One day in advance of a whole new programme for one set of teachers is ludicrous. It is beyond belief. There needs to be much more. It needs to be ongoing and there should be a commitment that it will be ongoing.

I teach students with special needs so I have serious concerns about the common level. I also have concerns about the priority learning units, PLUs, which are specifically for students with special needs. I feel, and I think other teachers of students with special needs would agree, that those are very specific for a very small number of students with special needs. There are many other students with special needs who now do ordinary level or foundation level papers who would be seriously challenged by common level. Ms Leydon will say more about that in a moment.

I would like Deputy Ó Riordáin to be very clear that we are not against change in any shape or form. I would not be as critical as he is of the current junior certificate. We fully accept that change is needed but if it is needed on this scale, it must be done properly.

We agree absolutely with Senator Healy Eames’ comment that the school certificate reinforces inequality. There is a move within the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA, away from the school certificate to a general certificate. It would have neither the harp nor the name of the school. That raises many practical issues, such as who signs it, where it comes from and who stands over it, which must be ironed out, but we share the Senator’s concerns about that.

Senator O’Donnell mentioned short courses-----