Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am under no illusion there. If there is a maths teacher in a base school on 12 hours and the whole school is looking for seven hours, common sense can be applied and joined-up thinking can be engaged in. Principals who spot that opportunity will go for it. Having spoken to them, I know it is about timetabling. If there are distances involved, the teacher has to be compensated for the time spent travelling and the interruption to his or her day. Where teacher approval is being granted by the Department, officials have to ensure the teacher does not have to travel during the day. It should be about going to one of the schools on one day and the other on another day. I re-emphasise, however, that it is not a solution to the teacher supply issue overall, albeit I encourage principals to work on it. I know they will. Deputy Martin also mentioned recruitment and retention which is a big issue.

Looking at the new courses, especially the masters courses we introduced this year in Mary Immaculate College, and at other courses at undergraduate level, it takes time to do that. As a strong advocate of returning to education, I am also conscious that it is very difficult for somebody who is in the circle of paying bills and mortgages to go back to it full-time. We increased the funding for student support this year as well. I am conscious of the retention issue. There are initiatives within the teacher supply consortium that is up and running, but I wish to examine ways of trying to address the issue that there are a number of teachers in the south east of England and in the United Arab Emirates. We must be practical in the conversations we have with them. It is not necessarily to encourage them because many teachers are waiting for the prospect of getting a job. It is the not knowing, certainty around that and when interviews are held. I am doing a piece of work with my officials on that.

The Deputy spoke about initiative overload. That is something I am hearing about from the staff room. A great deal of change is happening, much of it good. The schools I visit around the country are doing the well-being part very well. They are considering creative ways. They are doing the social inclusion part. Teaching is happening in a very holistic way in schools. Central to the way teaching is taking place today, from my observations, is the dignity and respect piece in the school setting, that is, the way teachers respect young people, young people respect teachers, respecting the whole school environment, having parents and the community front and centre and the integration of business not just within secondary schools but also within primary schools. We can learn a great deal from what is happening in schools for developing our policies. The well-being policy is working very well. It is trying to get students in touch with their issues and to be honest and upfront about the challenges they face.

The Deputy spoke about the audit of all schools. A piece of work was done a number of years ago on an audit of all school buildings. Secondary schools are probably in a better position than primary schools. It is a big piece of work. I emphasised that there is a weakness in this infrastructure and we must try to find a way of doing it. If we were to use the full €8.4 billion on building gymnasiums in all 4,000 primary and secondary schools, it would not be enough.