Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The casualisation of staffing arrangements in the teaching profession is leading to talent loss. If the teachers in question will not be linked into the Lansdowne Road agreement, they will move. Half of the current home economics graduates from St. Angela’s College, Sligo, have gone into the food industry because they will have more job security and better pay in it. This is a fact. Who loses out as a result? The young people of this country will lose out. Physics graduates are going into industry too. We need quality in our teaching profession because teachers are the drivers of the economy at a personal and national level. We have to keep up there to be benchmarked internationally or we will lose out completely.

There is a huge load on the Minister’s shoulders because it is not about today or the coming year but about the future of our country. I appreciate that, because the amendments have been ruled out of order by the Cathaoirleach under Standing Orders, we are now relying on the Minister’s answers to guide me and the profession.