I am very pleased that this matter has been accepted for the adjournment debate. In a sense it follows on, although in a different vein, from the discussion we had today because it involves our relationships with Northern Ireland. This is one of the things I feel most strongly about. If I am correct, the applicants for posts in primary schools in the Republic in the coming year from outside the Republic will not be considered. Candidates who have taken their educational qualifications outside the Republic and who do not have the requirements in the Gaelic language, are requested to sit an Irish qualifying examination if they wish to become fully fledged teachers in primary schools in the Republic. The administrative machinery for carrying out the decision of the Department is that no qualifying examination in Irish will be held in the coming year.
There are reasons for this. The Department has a problem and there is no point in trying to run away from it. The forecast for the primary school teacher situation in the coming year is that there will be roughly 800 vacancies in the Republic through wastage, and through the normal process, and about 1,000 applicants coming through our training colleges in the Republic. The Department has decided to effectively exclude applicants from outside the Republic by not holding the qualifying examination in Irish. That is all very fine.
Some of my Northern constituents raised this problem. It was the first I knew about it. They point out that it effectively discriminates against people from Northern Ireland who wish to take posts in the Republic in the coming year. I could see a reason for this decision by the Department vis-á-vis any other part of the world. Really when we narrow it down it only involves Britain and Northern Ireland. I could see a reason for it in a global sense but if either the Government, the Opposition, any of our politicians or the Department of Education are serious in fostering our relationship with Northern Ireland, then some exclusion must be made for teachers training in Northern Ireland.
We have talked at great length in the debate on the Extradition Bill about our special relationship with Northern Ireland. I know it is the wish of all parties and of all politicians—to establish a special relationship with Northern Ireland. Whatever the administrative difficulties involved, when one takes a decision such as that made by the Department of Education vis-a-vis teachers applying for posts in primary schools, it must exclude Northern Ireland. There must be a let out for those people, otherwise we might as well say that we do not give a hoot about the Northern Ireland situation. If we do not strive in every way to break down administrative barriers, to get over the hurdles, to make a special case for our fellow Irishmen in the North, then we may as well give up all this talk about Extradition Bills, about unity and all these emotive terms and phrases and these ways of looking at the special problems in the North and so on. If we do not make the simple administrative distinction between Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom, the rest is all eye wash and nonsense.
It seems strange to me, particularly as a member of the Protestant community in the South, that we are not more sensitive to Northern opinion. I do not just mean to Protestant opinion in the North. This decision affects everyone right across the board. I tried to make a telephone call today to Belfast. There was no Northern Telephone Directory in Leinster House. One of the girls I asked about this said that perhaps the number for Queens University is in the country section of the Republic's telephone directory. This, in a way, illustrates the whole situation.
I am not trying to say that the Department have not got a problem here. Of course they have. There are problems in education right across the board and I sympathise with the Minister and the Department in their efforts to solve these problems. But, if we do not at every step and turn make special concessions to the North vis-a;-vis Britain then we may as well not be in the game of trying to set up a special relationship with Northern Ireland. When an administration is made which seriously affects Northern people and treats them in the same way as the citizens in the mainland of England, Scotland and Wales, then something has to be done. I hope the Minister will be able to say in reply to this short Adjournment Debate that he will hold a special qualifying examination for those currently in Northern Ireland who wish to apply for posts here. If he does not, it shows that he and his Department do not really make any distinction. If that is the attitude, we should make it absolutely clear to the Northern people that we are not really interested in setting up this special relationship which will be the only way we can solve the problems in this island. It is not a question of unity, it is a question of a special relationship and is the foundation to the solution of the problems in this island. It does not involve the people on the mainland of Britain. Unless we can say that in every administrative decision, in every aspect of our government and in every problem we look at, we make special consideration for those in Northern Ireland, then we should make it clear, and the Northern people will know exactly where they stand.
There is a problem. The forecast leaves a shortfall of 200 if it is correct. If the figures I gave of 800 vacancies, and 1,000 home-based applicants are right, then there is a shortfall of 200. There are other people who might merit consideration, people who may have qualified in the North, who are in Britain and who wish to come back to this country. The Department should clearly set out the fact by an advertisement in the newspapers saying they are holding a special qualifying examination in Irish for applicants for primary posts in the Republic who are currently teaching in Northern Ireland and who have not taken this qualification, people who wish to come and teach here from the North. If it magnifies our problem then this is the price we have to pay. If we are ever going to work together with the North our problems will not diminish, rather the opposite.
I should like to go back to my constituents after this debate this evening, for they were the people who raised this problem in the first place—I was not aware of it myself—and tell them that this problem has been raised, that we have taken a generous attitude and that we have decided that, as far as we in the South are concerned, northern applicants will be considered and given the same opportunities vis-á-vis these poss as the people here. If I cannot do his it is tanamount to saying that, as far as this sphere of Government is concerned, we do not care about the North and as far as the special relationship is concerned we might as well whistle in the wind.