Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I still have not got to the bottom of who is responsible for this. Will anybody enlighten me? I know when Brian Mooney wrote in The Irish Times, it prompted Mr. Tomás Ó Ruairc to respond. I do not know if that means that the Teaching Council is responsible for this. I am not sure that it is but it certainly has a role. It prompted Mr. Ó Ruairc to respond at the time to say that everything was going fine. I will be putting this forward as a recommendation, which is beside the point in a way. Why was the report on teaching supply suppressed within the Department? I know nobody here can answer that question but somebody sat on this report for a year and a half and, laughably, the recommendations are all out of date anyway because they talk about doing something in October 2016 or implementing something for the 2017 to 2018 year. Somebody sat on this and the committee should endeavour to find out who sat on it and why they did so when a problem was clearly identified and has continued to be identified. Following from the answers to this problem that the witnesses are putting forward, we need to find out why someone sat on this report and ignored it. We need to emphasise how seriously we, and the education stakeholders, take this and the dire need for somebody, somewhere in the Department of Education and Skills to take responsibility, sort this out and do something.

Mr. Tomás Ó Ruairc cannot be blamed for this steering group that was only set up a few weeks ago. It was due to be set up a year and a half ago according to the Striking the Balance report but it was not. Some political pressure was put on but the children in the classroom and the lack of teachers to teach them did not seem to be enough pressure on the Department. Does Mr. Ó Ruairc know why this steering group was not set up until a few weeks ago? Why was the meeting of the steering group, which was to be held in May, brought forward to now? Why was it decided to only schedule it for May initially? I raised the matter of this specific report in the Dáil a year ago. I am sure other people were raising the issue of the lack of teachers and the substitute crisis in primary level, but I raised this twice in priority questions. I need answers to that. Tá mé an-bhuartha faoi na gaelcholáistí. Is fadhb í, agus Bliain na Gaeilge á chéiliúradh againn, go bhfuil dainséar ann nach bhfuil múinteoirí le Gaeilge sna scoileanna sin. An bhfuil an tUasal Ó hAiniféin in ann a insint dúinn cé mhéad gaelcholáistí atá ag fostú múinteoirí nach bhfuil Gaeilge acu? Measaim gur fhadhb an-mhór í sin.

We need answers to these questions. Ms Breda Corr has raised serious questions on special education. I hope somebody is listening to this in the Department of Education and Skills. As one of my colleagues said, we need to get the officials and the Minister in here as soon as possible. They need to know that we are taking this seriously and that everybody else seems to know the answers to the questions collectively. We know what to do. The witnesses have all told us what to do. Somebody, somewhere needs to distil those answers and say that we will bring it in. I do not think anybody would argue with the list that Fianna Fáil put forward in the Dáil motion, which were all the witnesses' ideas, really. Nobody would argue with them. We did not include one or two of the more contentious ones for the sake of avoiding hassle, so that we could get something done. There have been forums after stakeholders after meetings. When will we sort it out and value the teaching profession, as Ms Russell said, and celebrate it?