Mr. Michael Gillespie:

Yes, but it is perhaps not that bad. A teacher's degree might be in biology but they might have to teach maths in first year. I know a school not a million miles away from here which recruited a maths teacher whose parents are German. This teacher is now teaching half of a timetable of German because the school could not get a German teacher but that is what kept German as a subject in the school. This out-of-field teacher has kept German in the school. It would have been gone if she had not been employed by the school. This is what we are seeing but quantifying it is difficult. The Department did a bit of research on maths and it was quite surprising how many people were teaching out of field in the subject. As far as I am aware, that is as far as the research has gone. It is more anecdotal when we go to a branch and we hear different stories. As the Cathaoirleach knows, schools cover this up. This is especially the case in rural Ireland. If there are three schools in a town, none of them wants to admit that it cannot get a teacher even though it is not a reflection on the school, but on the fact that there are not enough teachers.