Mr. Tomás Ó Ruairc:

I will go back to Deputy Byrne's question on teacher supply and the capacity of that to impact on curricular reform. I have a brief comment on well-being but I am conscious of time. Like Deputy Byrne's question, there are two planks to the answer on teacher supply. Teacher supply in and of itself does impact on the system's capacity to implement and lead curricular reform, but there is an issue of wider capacity in the profession more broadly that I referred to in my opening remarks.

In terms of teacher supply, our remit is to advise the Department under the Teaching Council Act. We have produced two reports on it, an interim report in 2015 and a final report, Striking the Balance, in 2017. Based on a representative sample, about 70 post-primary schools, approximately 10% of such schools, it appears there is an imbalance in certain key subject areas and in terms of the supply from the professional master of education, PME, in the concurrent programmes, on the one hand, and the demand from schools on the other. That would be borne out and reinforced by data we have received from management bodies in terms of shortages in subjects such as home economics, Irish, languages and STEM subjects. The council convened a representative forum on teacher supply of all the stakeholders which met on 5 October and we are planning to reconvene in May. We are also engaging with the Department on an ongoing basis on this matter. If one does not have teachers in classes to teach subjects, whether they are new, revised or otherwise that clearly does impact on a system's capacity but it is an issue on which we are working with all stakeholders.

That should not take away from the point I made in my opening statement about the capacity of the profession more broadly, beyond subjects, to lead curricular reform. We are seeing that transformation. Every year at FÉILTE, the festival of education in learning and teaching excellence, we see an incredible amount of innovation and great work being done by teachers in schools of all types to innovate their practice with students. That is happening already. When one looks at the enhanced capacity for research that we are leading through Croí, collaboration and research for ongoing innovation, there is an incredible thirst and hunger among teachers for research that is accessible and meaningful to them and there are many teachers conducting that research.

Senator Gallagher asked about well-being. We are part of the well-being for teachers and learners group with the Irish Primary Principals' Network, IPPN, the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals, NAPD, the Children’s Ombudsman and the National Parents Council Primary. We held a conference last Saturday in Croke Park. While I understand there is a specific well-being provision in the junior cycle, there is also a clear learning from schools that showcased what they are doing now in terms of well-being for teachers and learners to the effect that a holistic whole-school culture and approach to well-being is vital.

We were really impressed by the quality of practice among schools in that area, which they demonstrated at Croke Park last Saturday.