Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I take the points the Deputy made but I do not agree with her that teachers are professionally developed-out; they are not. As in any profession, we must ensure 100% of the profession take up continuing professional development when it is offered, including the various types of continuing professional development which will become available for this very process. This is an evolving process and there is still some way to go on this. We genuinely recognise the concern articulated by the Deputy and we are very conscious that we are asking teachers to do a lot. We have asked them to do quite a lot in terms of project mathematics and other subject areas and changing the thinking in regard to moving away from learning by rote to a more collaborative learning type of system, which is difficult to do if one has been teaching a certain system for quite a number of years. We are conscious of that which is why we want to ensure the supports are put in place for those teachers who, as the Deputy said, are professionals in their own right. We want to ensure it is a smooth a transition as possible.

See this speech in context