Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The housing emergency is now spilling into education. Schools are really struggling to recruit teachers, teachers cannot afford the extortionate rents that are being charged and many are locked out of any real opportunity of ever purchasing their own home. I was shocked and gobsmacked to hear the Minister for Education's first response to this was a suggestion of cancelling career breaks for teachers, not least because she herself is on a career break from teaching. Clearly that is not the answer. Will the Taoiseach make clear to the Dáil that the cancellation of career breaks is not what is in mind? Furthermore, will he set out what the Government will do to address this real crisis in recruitment of teachers, which is wholly traceable to the housing crisis that has come on the Taoiseach's watch?

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