Teacher and nurse staffing
Deputy Chambers questioned whether public-service agreements were enough to stop staff losses in teaching and health, citing a letter from Dublin 15 principals. The Taoiseach rejected the claim of haemorrhaging staff and suggested substitution problems may reflect more teachers moving into permanent posts.
In the programme for Government, it is outlined that there will be new investment in public services which will allow the Government to recruit additional front-line service professionals such as nurses and teachers. My comments relate to what Deputy Breathnach has said. Is the Lansdowne Road agreement and its replacement sufficient to deal with the haemorrhaging of front-line staff that we are seeing across the teaching profession and also across the nursing and health care professions? The Taoiseach, along with other TDs and myself, received an email from 35 principals in Dublin 15 which relates to the shortage of substitute teachers. In September, 546 school days were lost due to the absence of cover and substitute teachers. I wonder whether the Taoiseach feels the current public pay agreements are fit for purpose or should there be a Dublin focus to ensure retention of front-line staff who cannot afford to live here. I know the Taoiseach is aware of the problems.
Comment on this
I do not believe the Deputy is correct to say that we are seeing a haemorrhaging of staff. As I mentioned earlier, we have many thousands more teachers employed by the State every year and perhaps part of the reason it is difficult to find teachers to cover substitution is that they are being hired into permanent positions. The solution to substitution might be asking more retired teachers to come back and cover supervision and paying them to do so rather than looking for younger teachers who used to be on temporary contracts or working hours who now have full-time positions.
We are certainly having difficulty recruiting in nursing. Nonetheless, we have the fifth highest number of nurses per head in the western world, which is a significant statistic that many do not know, and we have more doctors and midwives hired in the health service than ever before. There is not a haemorrhaging.
That is not to say that there is not a difficulty recruiting in some areas, particularly health care and certain parts of the Defence Forces. We have asked the Public Sector Pay Commission to examine that specifically.