John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. I will use the opportunity to draw attention to the difficulties faced by young qualified teachers in gaining employment, even on a temporary, part-time or substitute basis. There is widespread disquiet among young teachers, particularly at primary level, at the perception that retired and unqualified teachers are being employed in their place. Shortly after taking office the Minister sent a circular to primary schools which set out strict guidelines on the employment of retired and unqualified teachers. His initiative has helped to reassure newly qualified teachers, particularly in the context of figures which indicated that the number of retired teachers returning to the system has decreased significantly, because it gave them some hope of getting into employment.

Teaching remains a valued and sought after profession. The role of our teachers cannot be overstated. The country will not recover by repeating the mistake of putting all our eggs in the one basket of construction jobs. Our young qualified teachers have an important role to play in terms of helping young people to find highly skilled employment and allowing the Government to attract foreign investors based on our high standard of our education.

I commend the Minister on how he dealt with junior and leaving certificate classes. Concerns were expressed by students and parents about the effect that retirements from the public service would have on examination preparations. These concerns were addressed in a sensible way and there was only limited employment of retired teachers. However, I hope the posts vacated by these retirements will be offered to young qualified teachers.

Qualified teachers who pursued further up-skilling such as master's degrees in language teaching after failing to secure employment are concerned that they will not be rewarded for their additional training. They will be hit on the double by the cuts to salary and allowances.

I listened intently to Deputy O'Sullivan last night while she outlined her views on the Teaching Council. As a former teacher, I agree with much of what she said. I often wondered what the Teaching Council was doing. The Deputy suggested it is merely an extra layer of bureaucracy that does nothing to support or raise teaching standards. I do not want to condemn the council but I ask the Minister to examine its functions closely because I believe they could be performed in a more efficient and cost-effective manner.

We must ensure that the education budget is focused on front line services. Those of us who represent rural constituencies are conscious of the changes recently announced to pupil-teacher ratios in small schools. I am not sure if the previous speaker is aware that an appeals mechanism was recently announced that will allow a small school, which can demonstrate and verify increasing numbers in September 2012 and beyond that, to retain a teacher. In other words such schools will not be condemned solely on the basis of the September 2011 figures, which I welcome. I had urged the Minister to have a flexible approach on that aspect and I welcome his response. This is a very emotive issue and, as one who attended a rural school, I recognise their value.

Outside teacher allocation, many of the supports for small schools, including caretaking allowance, cleaning allowance, secretarial allowance, resource teachers and capitation based on 60 pupils even though a school might only have 15 or 20, were not touched in the budget. I have urged the Minister to show flexibility to DEIS rural schools. For example, because the school in Aughleam in my constituency was a DEIS rural school, it could lose a legacy post and another post, moving it from a four-teacher school to only having two teachers. To lose 50% of its teacher allocation in a few years would be too much. I urge the Minister to address the matter on a case-by-case basis, which I believe he has promised to do.

I welcome many of the provisions of the Bill. Education is a very important sector in our economy and it is vital that it delivers to the highest standards.

See this speech in context