Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Hoping will not solve it or get it sorted.

On supervision and substitution, in some schools one is only talking about 100 leaving certificate students and in others, 80 or 60. While some schools may have more than 100, the Taoiseach cannot tell me that it was not within the capacity of school managers to facilitate the opening of schools to teach these students. This is a serious issue because students get lost in the debate. They are the pawns in between, but there is only one year in which a student does the leaving certificate examinations. Whether one likes, they are crucial examinations in terms of the future development of young people and their career opportunities. There is complete uncertainty and nobody can give them a clear pathway to the resumption of their courses and studies. It was within the capacity of management to keep schools open, but my suspicion is that the Department and the Government decided to bring the dispute to a head and allow teachers to go out. That is why there was no will to keep schools open and sort out the supervision and substitution issue, particularly for examination students.

If there was an issue with 500, I could accept that. However, I question the point that it was not within the capacity of schools to open to facilitate the teaching of leaving certificate students.

In respect of newly qualified teachers and equal pay, the Minister of State, Deputy English, said last week on "Claire Byrne Live" that it will happen in the successor agreement. Every Minister is nodding their head and saying it will happen. Why can the Government not say it publicly? I understand the Minister said it previously so why can the Government not say that there is a pathway to equality of pay for newly qualified teachers? It may be in the successor agreement but at least, there is a timeframe, commitment and pathway. This would go a long way towards getting this sorted.

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