Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 8, 17 and 62 together.

The Minister for Education and Skills and his officials are very open to discussing issues of disagreement relating to the junior cycle student award with the teacher unions, and have been all along. The Minister has asked his officials to continue to have discussions with the partners through the national working group on junior cycle. He has received detailed suggestions, particularly from the management and patron bodies, which will inform the discussions, but he continues to await similar written submissions from the teacher unions.

The Minister's door has always been, and will remain, open to anyone in the teaching profession and their representative bodies who want to engage as to how best to deliver this very significant reform of our education system at junior cycle.

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