Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú:

The Deputy highlighted the issue of teachers travelling abroad for work. We are finding from our engagement generally with the management bodies that there is a slightly increased availability of teachers this summer. Perhaps graduates are not travelling immediately or perhaps there has been some level of returning. We have a major teacher supply group, which I chair, working through some of the issues, but it is too early to know whether what I just described is anecdotal or an actual trend.

In terms of substitution, what we have been seeking to do in recent years at primary level through the pilot supply panel and sharing substitutes between small schools to make up for teaching principals' administrative days has been to create as many full-time posts as possible. We are looking to enhance such models to enable full-time posts being put in place.

We do not have an undersupply of primary teachers. Our larger challenge is at post-primary level. We published some draft information before Christmas about the supply of teachers and we are consulting stakeholders on it. The difficulty is not with supply but, as the Deputy mentioned, with the availability of irregular work.