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

I thank the Minister for her kind words. It is very much appreciated by my family, to whom education means the world, that the Minister for Education mentioned my daughter on the floor of the House. Her sister Anna is very excited.

On the matter at hand, the INTO has spoken at its recent conference about 2,000 long-term vacancies within the primary school sector, as the Minister knows. It predicted this last November. The reason I keep mentioning the potential of the Dublin allowance is that there has been pay weighting in London since 1920. In fact, in 2002 teachers in London went on strike for increased weighting. What I propose has been in the understanding of the education system in London for over 100 years and we need to have that understanding here as well because far too many schools are understaffed, particularly in Dublin. I went to one such primary school, in the west of the city. It is operating at 45% of its staff capacity. Therefore, we have to find mechanisms to retain and recruit teachers who will stay. It is effectively a housing issue but a Dublin allowance might be part of the solution.

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