Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

Section 12 of the Education (Amendment) Bill provides for the amendment of section 30 of the Teaching Council Act 2001 to allow for the employment in certain exceptional and limited circumstances of persons who are not registered teachers under the Act. This matter has been debated at length in the House. To safeguard the standards and quality of education in schools, it is the policy of the Department of Education and Skills that all teachers should be fully qualified and registered by the Teaching Council. Section 30 of the Teaching Council Act 2001, which has not yet been commenced, provides that only registered teachers can be remunerated out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas.

To commence section 30, as it stands without amendment, could have a serious negative impact for several schools in which unqualified personnel are teaching or in schools where short-term and unavoidable absences occur. I have a responsibility to ensure schools can and are capable of remaining open, even where such absences occur. For this reason, I am providing a way for this to be done while still ensuring a strong teaching profession.

The move to mandatory registration of teachers is an important factor in progressively ensuring a fully qualified and registered teaching cohort. However, it is not always possible for a school to engage a registered teacher. This may be due to geographical reasons or the lack of availability of teachers of particular subjects at a given time. The proposed amendment to the Act is necessary to allow the Minister to regulate the use of unregistered personnel. To date the use of unqualified personnel in schools has not been regulated in this way.

The Department is in ongoing contact with the Teaching Council on several issues including section 30 of the Teaching Council Act. Recently, a delegation of senior departmental officials attended an extraordinary meeting of the council, at which they explained the Department's policy regarding the Bill. I hope the council can accept that our shared view that only registered personnel be employed by schools must be counterbalanced by the obligation on my office to provide schools in the State can function effectively.

See this speech in context