Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 4:

In page 6, line 26, to delete “fit and proper” and substitute “qualified”.

This section deals with the fitness of teachers to teach and be admitted to the register. The concern raised in the amendment is that the term "fit and proper" is too subjective and is open to abuse or a subjective interpretation which is too wide. Obviously, one wants people to be fit and proper in the sense one would generally understand that, but that phraseology is too subjective. It is the type of phrase that could allow the parish priest to say somebody is not fit and proper, for example. The proposal is that we be a little more specific about what we mean by fit and proper and remove that subjective phraseology. What we want them to be, I presume, is qualified and vetted according to the legislation. The vetting ensures that they are fit and proper. If the Minister wishes to state there are other criteria that should be deployed in deciding what is fit and proper, that is fair enough but the obvious ones are that they would be properly qualified to do the job and that they would be vetted according to the legislation. However, fit and proper is too subjective.