Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I agree that we need to ensure an element of balance, but I do not think anybody would appreciate if their children in a national school or a secondary school were being taught by somebody who did not have appropriate qualifications. I do not think for one minute we would accept that. The sector has expanded drastically over the previous decade and we are catching up in certain respects. We need to work with the people who are working in this area to ensure they get the required qualifications so that we have a high quality workforce dealing with children in the early childhood years. Report after report confirms that the earliest years in a child's life are the most formative years.

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