Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The members of the Government have surpassed themselves today. I was speaking to somebody in the education sphere last week. Our conversation turned to teacher shortages and the person said to me that whatever those in government come up with, we can be sure their plan will put the blame on teachers. Sure enough, as if by magic, just as they are scrambling around to try to find answers to come up with some sort of a response to the excellent motion tabled by my colleague, Deputy Gary Gannon, and the Social Democrats, they have done it again.

It reminds me of the time during the pandemic when the schools were closed because that was the medical advice, and there was controversy over how we could reopen schools. Despite the fact that the Government was not listening to school leaders, was not prioritising air filtration systems in schools, was not investing in schools and was not providing support for teachers, at the end of the day, when it came down to it, what the Government wanted the parents’ conversations at dinner tables and on WhatsApp groups to be about was that this was not really about Government inaction or about failures of Government, and was not even about the virus, it was about teachers. Then, when it came to the spectacular failure of the Government to find school places last September for children with additional needs, despite the fact it had to ram through emergency legislation at the end of June and it was about Government inaction in that space, what it also managed to do as a Government was to blame individual schools, and teachers and principals in those schools, with one Minister naming four schools. Again, what they were hoping would be said on the WhatsApp groups, at the school gates and at dinner tables was that it was not about Government inaction and it was about these teachers and principals, and, in fact, it was about those four individual schools that were named by that Minister. Again, it was the teachers' fault.

Then, today, in spectacular fashion, when every teacher, principal and SNA we speak to refers to the housing crisis when it comes to the teacher supply problem, the Minister of State comes in and reads out a 15-page speech, one page of which is about housing. Then, the Government manages through leaks from Cabinet discussions to put the blame on those pesky teachers and their career breaks. Once again, the teacher supply problem is not about Government inaction or about housing, it is about teachers again. What the Government wants to have in all these debates about school reopening during Covid is that it is kind of the teachers’ fault; or regarding lack of places for children with additional needs, again, it is the teachers’ fault; and now, the fact we cannot get teachers is the teachers’ fault. It is unbelievable. I will tell the Minister of State, flatly and plainly, that the only reason the education system has not completely and utterly collapsed is because of the goodwill and the professionalism of the teachers that the Government seems determined to malign, along with SNAs and the wider school community.

Let us talk plainly about what the problem is: it is a housing problem. I do not want to have a debate that pits rural against urban Ireland but let us be frank. The Government is allowing Dublin to die on its watch. We cannot get teachers, nurses or gardaí to live in the capital city and to serve it. Our schools are being bled of talent that could teach these children, and the children feel it and know it because it is they are in classrooms without a teacher, or with a substitute teacher, or else they have a succession of teachers. They know there is something wrong. By the way, oftentimes these teachers, if they happen to have a chance to teach, are teaching children who are also affected by the homelessness crisis and the housing crisis, living with their parents in their grandparents’ house. I know of a particular school, with which I have a personal relationship, where I was told the situation has completely changed over the past 12 years and that 24% of the children are now in homelessness.

Yet, when the Government has a chance to respond to today's motion, what does it do? It wants those of us in opposition who are talking about teacher supply to have to talk about career breaks, not about housing. It is unbelievable that it has constructed a narrative today where we are talking about career breaks for teachers, not about housing.

I feel that the city I love, the city I grew up in, the city I live in and the city I care about, is dying on this Government’s watch fundamentally because we cannot get nurses because they say they cannot live in Dublin. The Tánaiste seems to think that what gardaí need is a gun rather than a gaff. Teachers are being priced out of the city.

We need to talk seriously about a Dublin allowance. It is going to get people in the Rural Independent Group very excited when a Deputy stands up and says that. That is fair enough. They have this in London. When they had a teacher shortage issue in London, they recognised that the cost of living issue in the city was serious and because they needed teachers to teach London kids, it was seen as that important, given the particular pressures in London. Let us talk seriously about it here in Dublin as well. Let us talk seriously about providing a standard of living for teachers in Dublin so it should not be an aspiration for someone to be a teacher and to live and work in Dublin. That should not be outside the capacity of a teacher. The State needs to recognise that and introduce a Dublin allowance.

That is a much more constructive idea for the Government to toss around the place, rather than having an onslaught once again on teachers' pay and conditions. I swear to God that if any of those in government, whether in Cabinet or on the backbenches, spent five minutes in a school classroom, they would not be able to survive because of the number of skills and competencies they would need. They should back off from the teachers and their terms and conditions, and realise that what they are doing is overseeing a housing crisis that is pushing teachers out of Dublin and affecting the children of the city. It is not good enough and they need to sort it out.

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