Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)

I have full sympathy for the point made by the Deputy. While he makes a logical and cogent case, if I am to be honest, we must speak to the independence of the State Examinations Commission in terms of the role of superintendents and so forth. The Deputy is absolutely right. The Minister for Education and Skills made statements on the role of retired teachers.

I respectfully ask the Deputy to put down a parliamentary question in respect of getting those numbers. If he would like to communicate with me afterwards, perhaps we can discuss a mechanism by which this issue should be raised with the State Examinations Commission, so as to allow for a situation to exist whereby the person who wrote to the Deputy would at least have some sort of a chance, having applied for five years in a row, if I understand the Deputy correctly. That throws up a particular scenario which, on the basis of common sense, should be raised as an issue. There is a public issue involved and I have sympathy with the case the Deputy is making.

I will talk to the Minister about this. If it is an independent commission then there may be issues about how to approach it and the commission's clear and unambiguous role in this. However, I certainly have sympathy for the view expressed. I do not see why we cannot have - at the risk of being accused of ageism - younger, part-time teachers taking up these roles on an annual basis. I will talk to the Deputy afterwards.

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