Averil Power (Fianna Fail)

No one on this side of the House is saying the alternative should be to send children home if there is not a qualified teacher available. Except in the case of one teacher schools, this should not be necessary. Certainly, in the short term it should be possible for the other teachers in the school to fill in for a day or two. I accept it may have been necessary to do this in the past when so many extra teachers were hired that it was difficult to find a qualified substitute. If ever there was a time to commence section 30, this is it. Given that there are so many unemployed qualified teachers, this is the wrong time to give statutory recognition to unqualified personnel.