Mr. Diarmaid de Paor:

It obviously impacts on the availability of hours. There have been changes, where one is not supposed to employ a retired teacher until one has gone through a great many hoops and then when one does employ a retired teacher it is supposed to be on a temporary basis. On the other hand one has to have a certain sympathy with the difficulty of finding a teacher, for example if one needs a teacher to teach physics through Irish in the west, it may not be that easy to find somebody. What is necessary is that the departmental circulars that are in place are enforced. The easy option often for a principal is to use a good teacher whom he or she knows from the time they worked at the school. He or she will try to get a person whom he or she knows will turn up for the three weeks and will try to bypass the departmental procedures. There is a need for enforcement.

There is an issue with temporary teachers. I also get a lot of complaints about exam superintendents, when people who are retired get the job when some of our younger teachers who only have part-time work need the money and should have the first choice. That is an issue. To be fair, measures have been taken and it is a question of enforcement.