Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The 14% increase in funding in 2005 is clear proof of my commitment to tackling and ensuring the completion of the school building programme and to ensuring the facilities teachers and children deserve are provided.

The recruitment and appointment of teachers to fill vacancies in an individual school are matters for the board of management of the school concerned. Untrained personnel should only be employed in exceptional circumstances and when all avenues for recruiting qualified personnel have been exhausted. The primary sector has experienced a shortage of trained teachers in recent years mainly as a result of the creation of the large number of posts outlined. The difficulties being experienced were aggravated by the number of teachers availing of career breaks, taking pensions and availing of job-sharing schemes. As a result of initiatives taken by my Department, the number of unqualified teachers at primary level has reduced in recent years. There have been a number of initiatives to tackle the problem. This year approximately 1,280 new teachers are expected to graduate from the colleges of education and approximately 400 from the Hibernia course. I am committed to ensuring the shortage of qualified teachers will be eliminated as speedily as possible.

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