Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy is aware, we have rolled out the primary school substitution panel to ensure that children will not be subdivided from one class into another should an issue arise. It was a pilot scheme that worked very well last year and we have rolled it out throughout the country. There are 101 panels currently operating, including specific ones for the Gaelteacht. The teachers are based in a base school from which they work and operate.

I can tell the Deputy that these arrangements will be reviewed on an ongoing basis and if there is a determination that further substitutes are required to be placed on that panel, we will do that. We are determined that this substitution panel is there to support schools and if additional resources are needed to give more support, we will supply them.

Those panels are only one source of substitution for a school. Nearly all schools would have their own traditional resource upon which they would draw for substitution. The TextaSub panel is also available. There is no issue of supply for primary schools from what we are hearing on the ground. This is just one measure that we have put in place but it is there to supplement the other measures and resources that schools have used before now.