Mr. Kieran Christie:

Senator Warfield raised the issue of STEM versus STEAM. My colleague might have a comment to make on that but I also wish to make a few brief comments. The ASTI would concur with the Vice Chairman regarding our appreciation of the valuable voluntary work that is done by parents, teachers and other individuals in communities throughout the country on boards of management. It has become a far more onerous task. The workload burden associated with it has become quite dramatic in recent years, so we concur with the Vice Chairman's view.

Like my colleague, I was pleased with the Vice Chairman's comments and those of Deputy Ó Cuív on the differential pay scale.

It has been a canker in the system over the last eight or ten years and is having a seriously deleterious effect on teacher morale in our sector. The position of the ASTI is not unknown to anybody in the room so I will not delay the meeting with that. It has serious implications for the system which could be quite major. There is no urban-rural divide on this. New entrants to the profession, whether rural or otherwise, are going to Dubai, England and so on. In September there are road shows where schools come over from England and set up stall to encourage our young and brightest entrants to the profession away.

With the forbearance of the Vice Chairman, perhaps Ms Moira Leydon will address the point made by Senator Warfield.