Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will put it to the Senator this way, because I got a lot of response to the teachers' conference in regard to the reception which I do not think did anybody any good, there are 87,000 registered teachers, registered in the Teaching Council. They were registered for the first time, following legislation passed in 2006. We do not do education reform on the trot, or very quickly, in this country. We do not sprint it. If a teacher is not registered with the Teaching Council, he or she cannot be paid from taxpayers' money. There were probably fewer than 1,500 delegates at the three conferences and of that 1,500, 1% to 3% caught the media in terms of response. I do not regard that behaviour or that manifestation of aggression towards me as representative. Every Minister for Education of whom I can think over the past ten to 15 years got not dissimilar treatment. It is a matter for the unions-----