Mr. Gerry Craughwell:

I will bring in both of my colleagues shortly but I would like to address two issues first. A member asked about FÁS and education and training boards. We are facing three serious changes in the VEC sector in the very near future, namely, the establishment of education and training boards, the establishment of SOLAS and the changes in respect of qualifications. Any one of those on its own would be hugely disruptive to any organisation but the three together represent a massive change. We in the VEC sector and the members of the TUI have always shown ourselves to be flexible, innovative and willing to take on change, and that will not change as we move forward. I wanted to get that point across.

On the issue of casualisation, I can give an example of a mother of three who has nine hours of teaching work a week. She is a single mother, as her husband has left her. That mother is struggling to survive on those nine hours of work. We are talking about real people with real jobs and real problems. These are people who are living in crisis. Because of the nature of our work, with our hours spread across a five-day week, people such as this mother do not qualify for any form of supplementary welfare. They do not qualify for family income supplement. We are talking about serious problems.

I will ask my colleague Mr. Declan Glynn to deal with representation on boards and with the impact of the changes on teachers, and I will ask my colleague Mr. John MacGabhann to respond to the other issues that were raised.