The Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, is considering two radical ideas aimed at making sure teachers continue to work in disadvantaged schools, which suffer from a high turnover of staff.
Paying teachers in these schools an extra allowance or giving them extra leave to "renew" themselves were both being considered by the Minister, said a spokeswoman last night.
She was responding to an interview with the Minister contained in the INTO's journal, In Touch. Mr Dempsey said there was a danger teachers in such schools could suffer from "burn-out".
"Burn-out becomes a factor as much as anything else and becomes a reality if people stay for too long. That's no good to the kids who are disadvantaged or the individual teacher," he said.
To prevent this he said new approaches were needed. "So things like renewal for teachers, seeing that they get time and space to renew themselves, whether it's by arranging that every five or six years we put in place a sabbatical or half a sabbatical year is the kind of thing that we should look at". He said this might be in addition to an allowance.
The INTO general secretary, Mr John Carr, welcomed the Minister's comments. "We have always supported the idea of assisting teachers in such posts," he said. The INTO submission to the benchmarking body called for money to be given to teachers in "challenging posts".
Mr Dempsey said the turnover of teachers in disadvantaged schools was "huge" and this created difficulties for everyone in the school.
The problem of recruitment and staff retention in schools has long been a source of discontent among the teacher unions, but so far government has steered clear of the issue. Mr Dempsey's spokeswoman said the Minister was looking at a range of "creative" ideas to address the problem.
Many schools currently find it extremely difficult to fill certain vacancies. Dublin schools in areas such as Tallaght, Clondalkin and Blanchardstown experience some of the worst shortages, because young teachers living on the northside of the city find it hard to travel to these areas due to a lack of public transport and traffic congestion.
In the interview Mr Dempsey was also asked if he would encourage his children to become teachers. "I never try to influence but I certainly would not discourage. I think it probably needs to be restated that teaching is a very noble profession and it is one where people make a huge difference."
The Minister also warned school managements not to turn down offers of temporary accommodation from the Department."Boards of management are actually putting themselves in serious jeopardy by refusing to take temporary accommodation."