Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am sorry that I had to leave earlier but obviously we got copies of the presentations in advance. I missed most of the conversation on live streaming and am not sure exactly what was involved but I would agree with what Deputy Funchion has said on the issue. We are talking about young children with different levels of ability, different backgrounds and so on and they really need personal contact and interaction with a teacher. Learning is all about action and reaction. It is not about talking down to children and sending them a message that they are supposed to take in and pull out again at some point in the future. That is all I want to say on that because I missed the earlier part of the conversation.

In terms of the issue of salaries and teachers going abroad, this committee is supportive of the restoration of pay for teachers as soon as possible. That said, in Ireland teaching has been a very desired profession. It is an area into which young people still want to go and the points for teacher training courses are still high. We want to make sure that continues but the fact that so many are going abroad is a genuine concern. The cost of housing is contributing to that, along with a number of related issues but that is something that this committee cannot sort out. I am interested in hearing the witnesses' views on how we might deal with the issue, apart from addressing the pay inequality, which is the issue that Ms Irwin in particular has highlighted. Are there other things that can be done to encourage people to come back?

There are lots of non-Irish people living here now. Could they do conversion courses to become teachers of certain subjects, including foreign languages? I am thinking of people who have qualifications in their own country but who are working in restaurants or in other areas and not using their qualifications at all. I would welcome the witnesses' views on that.

I have some knowledge of the conversion programme for mathematics in the University of Limerick. I think NUIG is involved with the Irish or Gaeilge side of it. I have been present at a few of the conferring ceremonies and the graduates come from all over the country. The course is delivered through local education centres, as well as in the two universities. It seems to be very successful in terms of enabling already qualified teachers to qualify to teach mathematics specifically. Could the same be done for other subjects? I am not sure of the statistics but if there is an over-supply of teachers in some subjects, perhaps they could be encouraged to upskill and qualify in another related subject. I am not saying that people should start from scratch on something about which they know nothing but is there some scope in that regard? These are all short-term responses, in some sense, but it is not that long ago that we had teachers who could not get jobs because there were not enough teaching posts. The current problem is relatively recent. Obviously, the population spike will happen soon. Actually, at primary level, we are beginning to work our way down again but the spike will hit at post-primary level in 2024. In that context, we need to have short-term responses as well as longer term ones. I am interested in hearing the views of the witnesses on those issues.