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

I agree with Deputy Harkin that given the once-in-a-century nature of the global pandemic we need to take measures now in respect of teacher substitution which would we not take in ordinary "peace" time. I will put it that way to the Deputy. That does mean that all stakeholders, be they regulatory or unions, must show some degree of flexibility as well. Today's meeting with the higher education institutions is not the first engagement between the Minister and the institutions. There have been challenges in terms of attendance for the theory side and so on. In my view, flexibility must be shown in regard to student teachers, as they could go a long way towards helping.

In addition, we must look at other areas. Retirement has been considered and good, constructive flexibility has been shown by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform in terms of facilitating additionality in that regard. The Minister is exploring other areas with the education partners. Flexibility should be shown on all sides to get us through this period in respect of substitute teachers. The Minister has already provided significant additional resources in terms of the further 100 teachers who were allocated to supply panels where the Department had identified areas of greatest need. The supply panels now employ 480 teachers. They provide substitute cover to almost 2,600 primary schools across the country. They work alongside the more traditional existing methods of sourcing substitute teachers such as the national substitution portal service, subseeker.ie, operated by the Irish Primary Principals' Network and developed under the Department's teacher supply action plan. In any one month or year, there can be a whole variety of reasons substitute teaching is required to replace existing teachers.

Notwithstanding that, given the fact we are in the middle of a pandemic, we have to show, and all the stakeholders involved, in my view, will have to show, flexibility in respect of the utilisation of student teachers and, indeed, other alternative methods of providing teachers. We have many qualified people who may not necessarily, for example, have the teaching qualifications per sebut who would have degrees and so on. These are issues we need to look at. Given the circumstances and given the fact the vaccination campaign has been very strong and the booster is rolling out, if everybody put their heads together, we could get a resolution to this or certainly alleviate the situation.

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