Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú:

There are a few points to make in that regard. We were very fortunate that the likes of Hibernia College were available to assist in training unqualified teachers, particularly those in the primary education sector. We would not have been able to implement section 30 of the Teaching Council Act, under which all teachers are required to be fully qualified, if such institutions had not been in operation during the past ten years. We are now facing a different set of issues, including what should be the level of supply into the future. Technically, there is an oversupply of teachers. There are more teachers being trained than there are jobs available. We do not have control over the numbers trained in the private sector and fund the training of those who attend public sector institutions. We have asked the Teaching Council for advice in this matter. Hibernia College has indicated that it is happy to engage with us and it is not the case that it is operating to its own agenda. It has indicated that it will be happy to engage with the Department once it has obtained the advice of the Teaching Council.

It must also be borne in mind that there is an international market for people who have qualified as teachers and that certain individuals may wish to move abroad. It is not, therefore, a case of there being a national benchmark in the context of the precise level of supply and demand. This is a complex issue on which we have engaged in quite a bit of consideration. We are very pleased that we have a qualified teaching workforce. We want to provide increased in-career development opportunities for those within teaching. We also want to improve initial teacher education and carry out further work on a range of other issues.

I will ask Mr. Burke to comment on casualisation, a matter on which he has been doing quite an amount of work.