The population of Ireland could increase to almost 7m in 33 years.
Ireland has been poor at long term planning for education.
That's the view of the General Secretary of the Teachers Union of Ireland, Tullamore's Michael Gillespie, as CSO figures show the Irish population could grow to just below 7m by 2057.
He says our schools are lacking in spare spaces in the event they will be needed, for example by Ukrainian refugees, and we will also need to look at making the average class size smaller, and more in line with the rest of Europe.
Mr. Gillespie says this lack for forward planning has contributed to the recruitment and retention crisis in teaching:
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