Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for an overview of the programme. While I welcome his comments, unfortunately, they show no intent to review the criteria.

He identified the eligibility criteria that applicants must meet. However, I return to what I stated in my opening comments, that those teachers are out of field - in other words, out of employment. They are not under contract in the classroom because of the unavailability of work for them. They are qualified to teach mathematics but they do not have a full-time job, not by choice but because of the situation in which they find themselves.

I appeal to the Minister to review the criteria to give special consideration to those teachers who are not in contract, whose qualifications are not sufficient to meet the Teaching Council's criteria - that can be established - and who intend to teach mathematics as soon as a job becomes available, and put them in a position in which they will use the period of time in which they are out of work to improve their skills. This would, in the first instance, improve their chances of getting a job but, more importantly, would put them in a position of being able to teach mathematics at an advanced level to the cohort of students that is coming through the schools. This would improve the capability of the education system, with a consequent a positive impact on economic activity and our ability to attract the kind of foreign investment that is dependent on the skill sets of graduates, and ensure that we are ready to meet the changing and dynamic nature of the demands of that foreign investment.

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