Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ar an gcéad dul síos, tréaslaím leis an rún seo ó Pháirtí na nDaonlathaithe Sóisialta. I commend the Social Democrats on this very well put together and timely motion. It contains a number of suggestions which I urge the Minister to take on board. The current crisis in our schools is quite profound. It exists absolutely everywhere but is most severe in the big cities and on the east coast. Some 60% of places on the substitute panels in Dublin are vacant. There are occasions when if three teachers are out, schools are only able to find one substitute. I know St. James's Primary School found itself in this situation in late November. Similarly, it is a base school for a substitute panel and advertised for places on that panel seven times and did not find somebody to take up the position. It is very clear this is taking up an enormous amount of time from principals and puts pressure on them, but more importantly it is having a huge adverse impact on the education our children are getting. As has been acknowledged, there are implications for children with special educational needs. It also means schools are having to remove subjects from the curriculum - I know that is the case in the instance of Coolmine Community School in Dublin. It means classes are being put together and in different combinations and it is hugely adversely affecting children's ability to learn. Tá sé sin dhá uaire níos measa do scoileanna atá ag feidhmiú trí mheán na Gaolainne. Bhí easpa múinteoirí ann cheana féin do go leor ábhar ag an dara leibhéal sna Gaelcholáistí agus tá an fhadhb níos measa fós sna scoileanna sin.

I have debated this with the Minister and the Minister of State a number of times over the past couple of weeks and I have acknowledged that some of the actions taken, such as, for example, allowing retired teachers to do more substitutions, were welcome. This latest proposal is quite remarkable. I am trying to imagine the meeting in the Department of Education and how deep it had to dig into the bowels of the Department to find the so-called solution it could somehow pin on the trade unions and put the Department on the opposite side. Could it look at permanent contracts at any time throughout the year? No, it was decided that was not going to work. Could it offer post-primary teachers more full-time contracts? No, that would not work either. Could it offer teachers coming back from England the option to complete their training or initial period here, such as happened during Covid-19? No, that was not going to work either. The Department would have had to go through 15 or 20 solutions to come up with this one, really rooting down the back of the couch to try to find it. Another issue on top of that is the message this sends to young mothers looking to go into a profession that is primarily female.

I note the Minister cannot be here and I acknowledge there is a very legitimate reason for that. I do not have an issue with that and hope that officials from her Department are carefully listening to this. I also hope officials from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage are listening because the responsibility for this issue lies just as much with that Department as it does with the Department of Education. Undoubtedly, there are many more things that could be done and I have given examples of the kind of things the Department of Education could be doing. However, at the end of the day, we are facing this issue because teachers cannot afford to rent in Dublin or the major cities, they have no hope of putting together a mortgage in the major cities and many of them can barely afford to do so in this country and are looking at the Middle East and Britain. The fact is that the Government is failing so profoundly on the housing crisis. Rents, house prices and the numbers of people in homelessness are at record levels and the one thing the Minister is clinging to, which is the commencements, is down too. By every metric the Government is failing and it is for that reason we are losing teachers to different professions, from the cities and to other countries. This problem is only going to get worse unless the Government gets to grips with this housing crisis. Not only that but it is going to spread to other disciplines, not just in the public sector or in the private sector. More and more, we are going to find a shortage of key, skilled, frontline workers unless the Government finally gets to grips with this and changes course because what it is doing now is not working.

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