Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise the issue of the withdrawal of Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland, ASTI, members from supervision and substitution duties. Effectively, what this means is that the vast majority of voluntary secondary schools in the country will not be able to continue to operate after the mid-term break, which ends on 7 November. The vast majority of the voluntary secondary schools will not re-open after the mid-term break, meaning there are only two days of scheduled teaching left. The impasse regarding supervision and substitution has not been dealt with by the Minister for Education and Skills. I ask the Leader to invite the Minister to the House to discuss this. We know that the strike issue is currently being dealt with.It needs to be dealt with urgently. Although the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland will not be on strike for many days after the seven scheduled days, it will be effectively closing schools or forcing boards of management to make the decision to close schools, because there will be insufficient staff available to cover the supervision required before school, during break times, after school, in schoolyards and so on.

The vast majority of principals and deputy principals in voluntary secondary schools are members of the union. There is no derogation for those principals and deputy principals to administer the scheme or for any replacement people to do so either. Those involved have not been told to co-operate with other people. Even if others were brought in, they would need Garda vetting. That Garda vetting takes several weeks. Even if we could find such people and bring them in, they would need to familiarise themselves with the school. If that is not possible - and it is not - then no board of management will be in a position to open a school because does not have the required level of supervision and substitution. I know this because I am chairman of the board of management of a school.

More than half of the secondary schools in the country will not reopen after the mid-term break unless the issue of supervision and substitution is addressed.

This is urgent. It is putting extraordinary pressure on pupils in these schools. They are not going to get the education they thought they were going to get. They are now in competition with people who are in non-ASTI schools or schools which are able to stay open - principally, the education and training board schools. In other words, different pupils are getting different levels of education but all are doing the same examination. It is a serious issue that needs to be dealt with urgently.