Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Minister's sincerity on this and wished only to give her an outline of what the school completion programme model means on the ground in Cork. We have 11 projects, comprising six non-education and training board, ETB, based and five ETB based. I highlight that distinction because in the case of the five ETB-based school completion programmes, predominantly, the teachers involved keep their pay and conditions as employees of the ETB. They have the same pension entitlements as regular ETB staff.

Unfortunately, in the case of the six non-ETB school completion programmes, the teachers do not have the same luxury of pension entitlements or the same pay and conditions. That is a glaring disparity and I hope it will be addressed as the scheme is reviewed. It feeds into the bigger problem we have with regard to school completion, namely, the poor retention of staff in critical areas.

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