Joe Conway (Independent)

At this stage in life, it takes very few things to shock me politically, but I was certainly taken aback to hear Senator Black mention that a motion on the occupied territories Bill was introduced in the Lower House this morning and that there was no Minister for foreign affairs there to hear the debate.I am sure she has a good reason why she is not there but it is a bad signal for us who are interested in seeing that legislation carried through.

I wish to underscore some of the comments made by my colleague, Senator Boyhan, when he was talking about the travails that attend the primary school system as regards the shortage of teachers. A deep irony about the primary school system is that the shortage of teachers is most felt where the need is greatest, namely, in the cities, in DEIS schools, sna Gaelscoileanna and in special education. I was reading InTouch, the journal of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation, the other evening and it is a long time since I heard it mentioning the fact that the INTO was contemplating balloting its members for strike action. That is not a step the INTO takes lightly and one it has not taken for many years. This underscores how serious the problem is with the supply of teachers, particularly in our city areas and in areas where they are most needed. I urge all in education and all in the Government parties to lay into the new Minister to make sure she understands that the exigencies that occur are very much alive in primary schools in the country and to ask her to address it with great urgency.