Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)

I wish to share time with Deputy Connaughton.

This Bill represents a missed opportunity. I wish to take up the point Deputy Costello made at length in respect of the provisions which will enable unqualified teachers to be paid out of the public purse. However, I will first comment on the real missed opportunity to which I refer, namely, the opportunity of encouraging greater democracy in the area of education. This is the Bill's great weakness.

Section 30 of the Teaching Council Act 2001 refers to the employment of a registered teacher and states:

A person who is employed as a teacher in a recognised school but---

(a) is not a registered teacher, or

(b) is removed or suspended from the register under Part 5,

shall not be remunerated by the school in respect of his or her employment out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas.

Section 12 of the Bill enables unqualified teachers to be paid out of the public purse, which is absurd. What is proposed clearly highlights the fact that the Government is out of touch. Anyone with experience of the education system will be aware that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of qualified teachers who are either being forced to emigrate or being obliged to scamper around the country - from Malin Head to Mizen Head and from Donegal to Dublin and on to Cork - in search of a week's teaching work here and there. These people are posting thousands of CVs to every school in the country. However, it is proposed in the Bill that the provisions of the Teaching Council Act 2001 be repealed in order that schools will be able to pay unqualified staff out of the public purse.

I accept that such staff will only be employed in certain circumstances and that schools will be required to furnish evidence to the Minister for Education and Skills that they have been unable to employ registered teachers. Are we expected to believe that when, at 7.30 a.m. on a Monday, the principal of a school in Macroom, County Cork, receives a telephone call from a member of staff indicating that he or she is sick and will not be able to attend for work, that said principal will, in turn, be obliged to telephone the Minister to seek permission to employ an unqualified teacher for the day?

The Bill offered a real opportunity to involve VECs in a democratic system by means of establishing a regional structure. Under such a structure, a centre could be put in place which schools requiring staff on a temporary basis - perhaps for one, two or three days - could contact. Are we expected to believe that the principal of a school is going to telephone the Department of Education and Skills on the morning on which an emergency arises-----

See this speech in context