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

I sometimes feel the Department is depending on the fact that schools do not want to speak in their own communities about the crisis they face. It does not give a good look to a school to be speaking about the fact it cannot fill its staff with teachers. I wonder whether the Department is almost depending on this. This doubly disadvantages disadvantaged schools. It disproportionately hurts disadvantaged schools. It also disproportionately hurts children with additional needs because, in a crisis in a school, a principal will make the tough choice of taking a teacher from additional needs education and putting them into a mainstream class.

The Minister's first response referenced an initiative at post-primary level. This is most acute at primary level. The Minister must really have been taken aback when she saw the results of the survey. If a Dublin allowance is not something the Minister thinks can deliver answers, we are all waiting for the answer she does have. So many school classrooms in Dublin and throughout the country, but most acutely in Dublin, do not have teachers or they do not have trained teachers.

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