Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

Tá Fine Gael i bhfábhar an Bille seo go ginearálta. Molann muid cuid de na moltaí atá ann, ach feiceann muid lochtanna móra le cuid mhaith eile. Tá sé tábhachtach go mbeidh díospóireacht againn, ní hamháin sa Dáil ach sa choiste. Molann muid freisin, ach go háirithe, go scríobhfadh an tAire chuig tuismitheoir gach dalta chun díospóireacht a chothú sa tír faoin treo ina bhfuil an t-oideachas ag dul sa tír, go mór mhór an bunoideachas. Ba mhaith an rud é freisin tuairimí tuismitheoirí a chur in iúl don Aire agus don Roinn i dtreo agus go mbeidh fios chinnte againn an treo a theastaíonn ó tuismitheoirí. Is locht mór ar an Bhille é nach bhfuil an díospóireacht sin ar siúl agus nach bhfuil an tAire sásta go mbeidh díospóireacht ar phatrúnacht scoileanna go ginearálta. Ba chóir go mbeadh an díospóireacht sin oscailte agus go mbeadh cead cainte ag gach éinne sa díospóireacht.

Our country is at a crossroads. There are many points in the Bill that I laud and support, particularly with regard to the new role for vocational education committees. However, let me deal with some of the problems I have with the Bill, particularly in light of the last part of the Minister's address. I want to make it very clear that my party will be against some of the provisions in the Bill because they are discriminatory, particularly against teachers who are fully qualified and registered.

I get the impression from the last part of the Minister's speech, which I am addressing first, that there is inadequate preparation in the Bill for the fact that tens of thousands of qualified graduates who are registered with the Teaching Council cannot obtain positions at present. I and many of my colleagues, including Deputy Quinn and, I am sure, the Minister, receive representations from fully qualified and registered teachers who cannot obtain employment in schools.

The Minister is establishing in this legislation the right to have clearly unqualified personnel paid to teach in schools. That is the most controversial aspect of the Bill. It relates to the Minister's decision to allow unqualified personnel to continue teaching in classrooms at a time when we are exporting our graduates daily and when we have the highest level of unemployment in the history of the State. It is not acceptable that the Minister and her Department are failing to deal with this issue. Last year, there were over 300 unqualified personnel acting as teachers in classrooms. The Department of Education and Skills makes the point that the number has dropped but there are still over 100,000 paydays claimed by unqualified personnel in schools right across the country. This represents 100,000 days during which children lose access to qualified teachers. That is not good enough.

Qualified teachers are paying €90 per year to register with the Teaching Council, a body put in place to promote teaching as a profession. Is it not surprising that many teachers now resent having to pay the annual fee for recognition as a teacher when people with no qualifications at all can pick up work in schools? This is undermining the teaching profession and it undermines Government policy at a time when the Minister is making legal provision to pay people who are not qualified to work in this area. I cannot and do not accept that a school principal cannot find a qualified person to work, even at short notice, in a school. I understand the Irish Primary Principals' Network operates a texting service to people listed on its database as interested in taking up a temporary or short term teaching post. Those interested then communicate directly with the schools concerned, supplying their qualifications and Teaching Council registration number. The Minister should insist on this being the state of affairs here. Many students, having qualified as a teacher at their parents' expense, are often unable to get a job because people who are not qualified to do the job have been taken on. This sends out the message that this issue has not been addressed. Surely, given modern technology - I do not wish to over-labour this point - we should be able to put in place a database which can be accessed each morning by principals seeking a substitute teacher from the following day. They could then make their calls and get on with school business. This is the simplest way of addressing this issue. To continue to recognise, as is being done in this legislation, the employment of unqualified personnel is unacceptable.

Another issue of concern is that a person wishing to check on the Teaching Council website if his or her teacher is qualified can only do this if he or she knows the Teaching Council registration number. I believe that anybody should be able to check on the Teaching Council website, without having to know the teacher's registration number, whether he or she is qualified. This, again, is a matter of using technology to provide people with the information they require such as whether a teacher is qualified or if he or she is being taught in the classroom by an unqualified person. This could be easily organised. Also, how does one ensure a teacher who has been struck off the Teaching Council register for whatever reason - I am not suggesting this is happening - is not as an unqualified teacher taken on by a school. While I am not implying that is the Minister's intention, I believe this could happen.

The Minister in the latter part of her speech referred to speech and language services, an issue of concern. Like other Members of the Oireachtas, I, too, constantly receive complaints - properly so - from parents of children who cannot access adequate speech and language services. This issue has been largely overlooked in the commentary so far on this Bill. It is worrying that we are handing over to the Health Service Executive responsibility for speech and language services. This appears to be another case of the Department moving away from adequate provision of supports for children with special needs. Special classes have been abolished and special needs assistants, language supports and resource teachers have been withdrawn. The Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004 has been deferred and responsibility for a hugely important service is to be given to the most unaccountable and inefficient agency in the State. What are the facts in this regard?

The current system of provision for speech and language services is hopelessly inadequate, with the most recent figures published by the HSE in April 2010 suggesting that 23,646 children and teenagers are on waiting lists nationally for speech therapy assessment or treatment needs. The Minister has suggested that taking responsibility for speech and language services from the Department of Education and Skills and making it the responsibility of the HSE will improve co-ordination and delivery of services to children on these waiting lists. I ask that the Minister respond on Committee Stage to these fundamental and critically important issues. Tens of thousands of young people need these services now but are not getting them. The Minister is not providing a solution to this basic disability from which these children and teenagers suffer and which can be remediated. If they get the services they are entitled to, they will be able to communicate in a proper manner. It is unacceptable that the Government has washed its hands of this issue in this legislation. They are the critical points I wished to put on the record of the House at the outset.

We support the main provisions of the Bill. Ireland is in many ways at a crossroads owing to changes in our demographics. There have been significant changes in our population during the past number of years. I take this opportunity thank my researcher, Ms Áine Kilroy, and the Oireachtas Library which produced an excellent and worthwhile document-----

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