Joe Conway (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would like to use my few moments to beseech the Deputy Leader - she will know where I am coming from - to ask the Minister for Education and Youth to come to the Seanad to talk about what is now becoming a critical issue of teacher supply, particularly in our cities and bigger urban areas. In this month's INTO magazine InTouch, the editorial states that an increasing multiple of teacher salaries on point 5 of the scale is going to finance the buying of a house. As all of us in politics probably know, it makes the idea of getting a house in, say, Dublin or one of the other major conurbations around the country very difficult for even joint salaries on point 5 of the scale. When I was a young teacher in Tallaght out the road back in the 1970s, it was not uncommon for me and most of my colleagues in the school to stay until as late as 4.30 p.m., 5 p.m. or sometimes 6 p.m. doing games or extracurricular activities. That is not a feature that comes easily to young teachers at the moment. To put a roof over their heads, they are moving further and further out and, consequently, facing long commutes. They leave school pretty much at 3 p.m. and the idea of knitting into the community is more or less a thing of the past. If we want a steady supply of good teachers in our urban areas, we need to look critically at this whole idea of teacher supply. It is very important at this stage and the problem should not be allowed to fester.