Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for leaving but I had to go to the Seanad. Before I left I had passed over most of my questions to my colleague.

While the allocation of 900 teachers sounds fantastic, where will they come from? What dialogue has taken place with the teacher training colleges to ensure these posts can be filled? In other areas of Government policy there have been great announcements that funds are available but the reality of filling those posts is a different issue. What forward planning is being done to ensure a sufficient number of people are trained sufficiently to fill the posts?

I wish to mention standardised testing for children whose first language is not English. Perhaps this question has already been asked. I am not just speaking about Irish speakers but refer to children who do not speak English as their mother tongue. Did the research take into consideration their situation? Some children may come from a different culture etc. but have specific needs. That aspect would have to be considered when assessing their educational needs.