Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

With regard to recruitment and retention, as I stated earlier, this country is at nearly full employment, so there are challenges in various sectors with regard to having staff in place when they are needed. In the first instance, we have 75,000 staff in place. There will always be challenges. They are more acute in some places at some times than they are in others. I absolutely recognise that. To ameliorate that, we have increased the number of places in our training colleges. We have ensured that there will be a €2,000 support provided for those who complete their Professional Master of Education, PME. We have dropped restrictions across many areas, whether for teachers who are on career break, teachers who are on job-sharing or teachers at post-primary level who can work additional hours should they wish to work them. We have found new pathways forward for student teachers. We are very appreciative of the work of the higher education institutes which have accommodated that work. We have 3,000 or 4,000 young people who have made themselves available for substitution. We have also found and supported pathways for retired teachers, as well as teachers who were trained in the UK, who can do droichead here at home. We have looked at a plethora of measures and will continue to do more in this space. I have come from a week of discussions with teaching unions. Teaching unions themselves have been proactive and supportive in this space in trying to find new ways. Reference was made earlier-----