Mr. John MacGabhann:

To some extent the casualisation is not fundamentally located within the Bill, but it is a remarkably important issue. I will provide some indication of the extent of the problem at the moment. The membership of the TUI is running to 30% of fixed term, that is to say, non-permanent teachers. I understand that the membership of ASTI is in the same region. At second level more than at primary level casualisation is a crisis unfolding. Almost without exception this situation relates to teachers who come in as new recruits to the sector and who in the first instance are not getting permanent positions and in the second instance are not getting full positions. They are getting fragments of jobs, bits and scraps, an hour here and an hour there but spread throughout the week such that other entitlements are denied them. They hold these on sufferance for a year under a fixed-term contract. They hope to get subsequent fixed-term contracts for a period of at least four years in total and sometimes into a fifth year, to eventually scramble over the line under the fixed term legislation of 2003. Then they get permanency but, by and large, they are getting permanency on part-time hours. We have members living on what anyone would describe as extreme income poverty. That is the truth of the matter.

These people come to us day by day. It is bizarre but we are looking to get them permanency for an impoverished part of a job. That is the truth of our situation. This is damaging quality. It is producing a churn in terms of education personnel and this in turn disturbs every school which is attempting to provide a consistent service. The child of anyone here could end up in the course of his second level education having four, five or six teachers for the same subject in the course of the six years. This is the way things are developing. From now on these people will spend six years without payment to get into second level teaching but after that period we want them to have at least the prospect of a decent living. We want the schools where these teachers are appointed to have consistency.