Fr. Paul Connell:

I will respond to some of Senator Ruane's questions. She asked about the teaching of Irish. I suspect, and I would like to see some research done on this, that the success of getting Irish as a full EU language has helped to open up the world of work in many ways to Irish graduates in a way that was not the case before, except perhaps in teaching or the Civil Service. Regarding substitute teachers, it is a reality and has been for some time that there must be a teacher in front of a classroom. Put simply, on our level, we cannot get substitute teachers qualified to teach the particular subjects of an absence because one does not know from day to day what teachers might be absent. One knows about some that are flagged within the service but one does not know about others. I welcome the suggestion that a basic salary be looked at for substitute teachers. I think that would help.

If I had one choice, entry to the PME would comprise perhaps an interview as well as just an application. I concur with my colleague from the TUI: there is a subsidy to Hibernia in the sense that Hibernia is treated exactly the same in our schools as the State colleges are in that we provide the same service for the PME students at no cost to Hibernia. Therefore, there is a difference between a publicly-funded institution, such as a third level college or ourselves, and Hibernia, which is a private company.