Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

In making the decision to move forward, I must take the interests of all partners into account, not just the teachers'. It was my view that we needed to commence in September as intended because this has been planned for a long time.

Regarding the rate of CPD uptake, we cannot force teachers, although the Deputy can correct me if I am wrong. Almost 90% of English teachers have attended the first day and approximately 2,300 science teachers from more than 500 schools have registered for science CPD, which is the next subject to be introduced in 2015. We will encourage more teachers to engage in the process. A CPD team recently recruited 15 additional staff and is working to ensure that professional development is available to teachers.

See this speech in context