Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the remit of the Teaching Council. I want to ask one question again that was half-answered. If we are trying to increase the number of teachers registering for the July provision, would it not make sense for the Teaching Council to look to the Department of Education to run specific continuing professional development, CPD, training, or to do such training itself, to support teachers and give them the confidence to want to work in this area? Not every teacher has the confidence to work with children with autism. Surely they would be more empowered by having specific training, and I do not mean resources online but specific training to give them the confidence to believe they have the skills and tools they need, even though they are already qualified teachers, which is fantastic, but we all know teaching children can be challenging. Does the Teaching Council have a plan to do clear training to support, encourage and empower teachers to put their names on the list for the July provision? This would help us increase the number of teachers available for it. I do not know where we are going if we do not have any figures on how many more we need. That is probably not the job of the council either.

The Teaching Council has increased the number of teachers available for the July provision. If we are not getting as much as we need, it might be worth seriously listening to my suggestion that the Teaching Council run CPD and proper training courses that will give teachers the confidence to believe that they can offer the July provision. Maybe the teachers do not have children with autism in their school. Maybe they are new teachers. Maybe they do not believe they have the skills, although we all know they have. Some specific CPD training could help increase the numbers on that list.