Mary Moran (Labour) | Oireachtas source

As Senator Paschal Mooney said, one always gets the nub of the answer in the last paragraph of a reply. I am very disappointed because the reply does not reflect the question I asked on what arrangements are in place and how they will deal with the fact that a teacher who is employed in a school for a certain number of hours will now have to have substitute teaching hours. It is students who will lose out if a substitute teacher comes in to take the hours for somebody to allow them to move to another school for a minimum number of weeks. Something could be done to address that. While I appreciate and agree that it is the Teaching Council that needs to look at it, the Minister should be aware that there is a huge problem. It is going to be a much bigger problem as this course unfolds and more and more people come on stream every year who have hours. I will write to the Minister herself to take this up. I would appreciate if the Minister of State, Deputy Deenihan, would also pass this on to her.