Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I do not think we can step away from the fact that there is a teacher shortage crisis happening in primary and post-primary schools. To address some of the initiatives the Minister spoke about, the PME incentive of €2,000, for example, is very welcome, but the PME course down here is two years. A graduate who wanted to take on the initiative would still have to deal with rising rent costs. God help them if they live in Dublin where it would be eaten up and actually would not even cover the cost of a month's rent.

The Social Democrats made a number of suggestions last year and I will go to them because they really cut through to what we need. They are permanent whole-time jobs to be given to teachers upon initial appointment; teachers in training to be paid for their work in placement schools; allowing teachers to be recruited on a full-time basis after the traditional cut-off of 31 October; and eliminating delays surrounding the re-registration of teachers with the Teaching Council. I do not doubt for a second that the Minister also recognises the crisis but we diverge slightly in terms of actions that need to be taken to address it. As I said, €2,000 as a number looks fine but in comparison the PME in the North is only one year and costs considerably less, and that would have made a much bigger difference.

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