Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister, herself a teacher, for coming in. I agree with my colleague, Senator Wall, on our eternal gratitude to our teachers, educators, tutors, assistants and the variety of people who have kept and keep our school systems going, particularly over the past couple of years.

I want to briefly touch on a couple of areas. I was scrolling through my inbox to see what kind of communication I get because I thought that might be somewhat useful to portray in here. As I am sure the Minister knows, home economics is a topic that has come up regarding the training of home economics teachers. When speaking to a couple of pals I know who went to St. Angela’s and studied home economics, they told me that half of them get snapped up by the food science industry. This is anecdotal and I do not have an exact figure. It struck me that I had not thought of home economics graduates being head-hunted for food science programmes but, of course, it makes it sense. We only have a certain number of training places in that particular subject. It is not taught the same way through, for example, the arts and going into teaching elsewhere. Home economics is a vital subject. There have been proposals from student groups on how to train home economics teachers, whether there are postgraduate opportunities for people who already teachers and stuff like that. I thought it would be useful to raise that.

The other issue, which I think we all know about, is the two-tier pay system. It is an eternal cause of consternation and annoyance. I do not need to regale the Minister with the impact that has on staff morale and all of that. I spoke to teachers who are on the older and arguably better-paid system. The fact that they are working with colleagues who they know will never reach pay parity possibly with them has an impact on them. I hope it is not true they will never reach pay parity. Even from the other side, it has an impact on those teachers.

Finally, I refer to teacher shortages. We have spoken to teachers and management in schools in Dublin city. They have staff coming from Meath, Louth and Kildare, travelling long distances in order to teach in the city because they cannot afford to live there. It is having an impact on them and they must consider the reality and challenges of being able to keep those teachers in those schools. The cost-of-living crisis and the impact that is having on the teacher shortage, particularly in Dublin city centre, is slightly outside the Minister’s Department, but it is within her Cabinet colleagues’ remit.