Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister to the House as Minister for Education and Science and wish him well but I put it to him that if he were to reduce the padding in the reply to the question we would see the reality, which is that the current vetting process is meaningless. Will the Minister concede that there are 55,000 teachers to whom this vetting procedure does not apply? In the light of his response, is the Minister saying that the improvement in the vetting process is in some way linked to a constitutional amendment because if that is the case it is news to me? What steps does the Minister propose to take in the immediate future to ensure the expansion and development of the vetting system to include teachers already in employment and not just new teachers coming into the system?

With reference to the role of his Department, will the Minister spell out precisely his role as Minister for Education and Science in this matter or does he intend to leave it entirely to the boards of management which appear to be introducing different rules and regulations in a haphazard and meaningless way?

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