Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Why did the Minister not seek to agree a protocol with the different professions where people are in casual employment as part of their training, in this case perhaps through the INTO, the ASTI and the TUI trade unions? The Minister in one of his press releases referred to 60,000 people participating in the JobPath programme. Its purpose is to target the long-term unemployed. It does not seem to refer to newly qualified teachers or people who were beginning the process of apprenticeship, effectively, in teaching and going on to become full-time teachers.

I thank the Minister for the replies he sent me on that but some of them appear to be contradictory in that he said there is no restriction on unemployed teachers taking up short-notice substitution, yet he also stated that jobseeker's payment is conditional on the person seeking employment and being willing to take up suitable employment. However, with the very nature of teaching in terms of the preparatory work and these casual workers being on-call to go into class to do the 300 hours for second level qualification, JobPath makes it almost impossible for them. The Minister mentioned that it is a rewards based system for Seetec, for the private company. That makes it extremely difficult for young professionals in training.

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