Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)

I am struck by several themes that have featured in this debate including, in particular, the issue of religious education. On the matter of registered teachers, to which Deputy Morgan referred, the explanatory memorandum to the Bill notes that in a small number of schools there are reasons for the engagement of certain unregistered teachers. In the context, one can understand the Minister's motivation.

Like all Members of the Oireachtas, I have had communications from individual teachers and from representative bodies expressing outrage that this may be the thin end of a wedge. I do not believe this is the case but I agree with Deputy Morgan that the system must be tightened up. One way to tighten it up would be to revisit the issue of supply panels. Some months ago, the Joint Committee on Education and Skills, which I chair, looked at the issue of the north Clondalkin supply panel. Despite the best efforts of members of the joint committee and the visiting delegation to put cogent points to the Minister, no progress was made. Given our current financial constraints, it makes sense to have either one national or a small number of regional supply panels rather than several local panels. Panels should consist of qualified teachers who are currently available for work rather than retired individuals. Retired teachers may have considerable experience but in the current jobs market we want to ensure that people who have graduated can gain experience. While one cannot be ageist, one must strike a balance. By having a proper incentivised quota system on a national supply panel one can ensure a blend of recently qualified people with new ideas and experienced teachers. There may be individuals who could go on to such a supply panel because of specific circumstances. However, the principle should remain that schools should employ only fully qualified teachers.

With every rule there is an exception. I did not hear the issue of ABA schools being mentioned during the debate. Several schools have not quite completed their deliberations, or their deliberations were prematurely concluded. The Programme for Government contains a commitment that ABA, as a methodology, continues but within the strict departmental constraints. The Programme for Government originally contained a commitment that 12 ABA schools would come under the departmental guarantee of ongoing funding. While the letter of the commitment was not broken the spirit certainly was. We have seen the rampant disassembly of ABA schools. There are schools where students receive a little ABA, which is a methodology, but are also taught in TEACCH and PES. These are not comparable with ABA, which is a way of interacting with the student. It is not a pedagogical learning methodology. One cannot combine them all but that is the eclectic mix the Department has been using.

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