Mr. John Irwin:

I concur with my colleague, Mr. Curtis, about the concurrent degrees. There are more coming on line, which will be of assistance. The consequence of a two-year professional masters of education, PME, and its cost, is that we end up with a homogenous teaching profession that is white, Irish and middle class. Other people cannot afford to complete it. That is, in many ways, an unintended consequence. SUSI grants are provided but as the Deputy pointed out, they hardly covers the fees. We have argued for that to be reviewed and for alternative models to be considered. St. Angela's College, for example, is doing a masters programme that runs from June to August of the following year so it does not take a full two years to complete. We have to innovate and we have asked the Department to do so. However, the other argument is that the PME is now a masters programme and we have to ensure the quality of the people who are entering the profession. It is a very long cycle for somebody with a primary level 8 degree to progress to a masters. That is a problem. We have also suggested that the second year could be more of a placement in schools and that we would treat it, in some respects, as an internship to provide experience. The masters candidates could be paid during that placement. There is work for them, without any doubt.

Geographical inequality is interesting. We met 100 students and some of their teachers last Monday and Friday to discuss the major issues in education and what they feel are the problems. Geographical inequity was raised by the students. It was interesting. The first group included a speaker from the very north of Donegal who spoke about the difficulty in attracting people to more remote locations and how difficult it is. The students from Dublin responded quickly to say that they have no technology teacher. They said they would take one if one could be found. They rely on a teacher to come from Mayo on a Saturday to work with technology students in sixth year. That is an extreme example.

We have surveyed all our schools about teacher supply. We have provided all of that information to the Department. It is aware of the problem. Some 2% of vacancies in teaching professions at post-primary level in the country have not been filled. Our findings are similar to that but, as Mr. Curtis has said, the issue is more pronounced in the capital. By the same token, if a job is advertised in the west of Ireland, half the members of the teaching profession in the capital apply for it to allow them to go home. The cost of living is a significant issue in the capital at the moment. It is expensive to live in Dublin.

The Errigal College project is interesting. I would love to do that. It is similar to other initiatives. I will again mention Midlands Science, a philanthropy group. It is one of many that are involved and should be supported. It is interested in the area of mathematics and encourages clusters of post-primary schools and primary schools in localities to work together to promote and develop projects that would work. Much of that work is beneficial. However, I will echo what Mr. Curtis said. We need significant investment in education in schools themselves.