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

A survey reported yesterday that close to 1,000 teaching positions in primary and special schools are vacant. The impact on students is huge. Tens of thousands of kids are being taught for extended periods of time by unqualified teachers. The situation is particularly bad for schools in disadvantaged areas of Dublin, including in Dublin South-West. The housing crisis is so out of control that teachers simply cannot afford to live in our capital and are emigrating to places like Dubai to work for a number of years to save for a deposit. The Taoiseach’s party has had 11 years to fix this, and I think we will be at 5,000 days of Fine Gael being continuously in power in a couple of weeks' time. Instead, however, the crisis has got worse and worse under its watch. Will the Taoiseach tell people where he stands on this issue ahead of the election? Does he support higher wages for all teachers? Does he support pay equality and permanent positions as standard for young teachers? Does he support a Dublin cost-of-living allowance? Will he abolish masters fees for secondary students? They are a real obstacle and a barrier to training new teachers and the small cut in fees that has been agreed is nowhere near enough.

See this speech in context