Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú:

The school does not have a devolved budget for teacher pay, which is paid centrally by the Department. If a teacher is going on certified sick leave for a number of weeks, one would not be aware initially that it was for a number of weeks, except in certain circumstances. Often a teacher would be on sick leave for a few days and then move on. Primary schools are required by circular to keep lists of potential substitutes available to them, but sometimes these are not available. There are support services available from the Irish Primary Principals' Network and so on which a school could use to get somebody to come in at short notice. If it then realised it would be a longer-term substitution, it would have time after a couple of days to put a more extended arrangement in place.