JOE has worked as a substitute or temporary teacher since 1994. He does mostly short time substitution. It can be a stressful life. "Staff are generally supportive and welcoming, but it might take you longer to work at discipline as a substitute teacher," he says. "Satisfaction wise, it's hard to get to know a class of 30 kids over a three week period and then have to move on. I'm teaching for two and a half years and I have taught in 47 schools with 25-30 children in a class.

"Pay is quite a bone of contention," he, says. "The Department can be slow to pay. Ideally the cheque should come the week after you finish, but it can be three or four weeks."

Nor is work constant. "This time of the year is a good time for substitute teachers - a lot of teachers are settled down in longer term, substitute positions so the pool is reduced. September is a bad time for substitutes - I didn't have any work for the first week and a half of September."

Also, he doesn't get paid during the summer, which he finds annoying. Instead, he works while his colleagues take holidays.

"During the summer I teach Irish and I come from the country so I do a bit of fishing and farming," he says. "Even if I subbed for a whole year, working the whole school year round, I wouldn't get paid for the summer: but if I was even temporary, I would. It would be nice to get your fortnightly cheque during the summer.

"I get no holiday pay unless it's for a bank holiday but you'd have to be in the school immediately before and after to qualify. And I don't get sick. I had the flu before Christmas and I had to take a day off but I've often gone in when I'm ill one has to make ends meet."

On the plus side, he earns slightly more a day as a substitute teacher than as a temporary teacher, but finds the advantage offset by the uncertainty of it all.