Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

Last week, we heard about a crisis in our banking sector and that we cannot attract the bankers we need to lead our banks like they did before the crisis. The answer from the Government for that crisis was to get rid of the pay cap of €500,000 so we can pay them millions of euro like they were paid before the banking crisis that we all experienced.

This week, we hear about a much more important, severe and impactful crisis in terms of teacher shortages, which is having a significant impact on children across the country, particularly in Dublin. What is the Government's answer? It is to get rid of teachers' career breaks. That tells us everything we need to know about whom the Government represents and whom it does not.

It is incredible that we have a crisis that is acknowledged by everybody in the know, one that is caused by terms and conditions for teachers, an inability to recruit and maintain teachers in their positions and the housing crisis. Those are the two key factors that are driving the crisis whereby 91% of school have experienced teacher recruitment difficulties in the past six months and 61% of schools experienced teacher retention difficulties, yet the Government's answer is to suspend career breaks. In advance of this response by the Government, the TUI warned that, "Announcing limited measures yet again in relation to career breaks, job-sharing and the taking of additional hours will do nothing to tackle the significant problems being experienced in schools around the country." Yet here we have it - the Government's answer to teaching not being sustainable for teachers is to take a measure to make the profession less attractive and, ultimately, worsen the teacher recruitment and retention crisis.

Meaningful action means tackling the housing crisis. It means introducing rent controls to bring rents down to affordable levels, as well as building social and genuinely affordable homes on a massive scale. It also means addressing the conditions faced by teachers. It means offering them whole-time jobs when they start their careers, unlike the 65% of teachers appointed after 2011 who did not get a contract of full hours upon initial appointment. It means restoring all of the posts immediately, which ensures the smooth running of schools while providing promotional opportunities for teachers which, again, will help to boost retention. The action the Government needs to take is obvious but, instead, it is insisting on blaming teachers for the crisis.

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