Ms Deirdre O'Connor:

It is heartening to hear that management and unions in primary schools are on the same page on issues like workload and initiatives. Deputy O'Sullivan asked how many teachers it would take to set up a supply panel. As there are approximately 36,000 whole-time equivalent teachers in the primary system, between 1,000 and 1,100 teachers would be needed to set up supply panels. It has to be borne in mind that this is not additionality because those days are already being covered in the system through substitution. It is not as if there is any additionality on top. The Striking the Balance report suggests that 5,000 teachers are needed to cover all absences and that 1,000 of them are needed to cover short-term casual absences that happen from time to time.