Ann Ormonde (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State and the opportunity to speak on this issue. I must declare that I am not a primary school teacher. Hence, my knowledge of teacher colleges and teaching programmes is not in-depth. However, I came from a teaching background, as my father taught in the multigrade system. I have often maintained that what matters is not the numbers in a classroom but how good is the teacher. The five pupils in a classroom with a bad teacher could get bad results whereas the 20-30 pupils in a classroom with a good teacher——