Mr. Tomás Ó Ruairc:

He made that call and we have acted on same. In terms of the comment made about migrant teachers who live in direct provision, under the terms of an EU directive, once a person has a qualification from another state, that person is entitled to register immediately and be employed under section 30. That person may have to fulfil a condition over a period, but he or she can seek and gain employment during that time. Nonetheless, we are prepared to work with migrant teachers and are happy to do so to see whether there is anything else we can do to streamline the process for them. I am happy to clarify that there are no immediate obstacles to their employment.

In terms of the top-up programmes area, we are crystal clear that State policy for both the Department and the Teaching Council is that we should have a fully qualified and registered teaching profession in this country. We have that and we want to maintain same. Top-up programmes occur where there is a shortage of teachers for certain subjects. I would refer the matter to some of the other speakers, especially Ms Russell. For example, science teachers who specialise in biology and physics may have to top-up their knowledge on chemistry and there may be routes through the Springboard programmes. The need for a basic high standard in teacher education is State policy and has been for some time, particularly under the literacy and numeracy strategy and the Teaching Council's standards for teacher education.