Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I also welcome the teachers who are in the Public Gallery today. I met them briefly earlier and gave them a commitment to meet them again after this debate and to work with everyone to come up with a good solution. I thank them for coming along to the Chamber. As a former teacher, I fully understand the gravity of the situation. The fact that we are so close to Christmas and they have not been given their wages is disgraceful.

On the issue raised by Senator Lawlor in terms of quality, under the Accreditation and Coordination of English Language Services, ACELS, rules and the Interim List of Eligible Programmes, ILEP, providers must meet certain standards for both curricula and teacher qualifications. The objective today is to introduce the International Education Mark, IEM, which will allow QQI to go underneath the bonnet and to check exactly what is happening. I am very willing to do all of that vis-à-visthe amendments that are coming up later.