Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)

I raised this on Committee Stage. My amendment seeks an up-to-date online register of available teachers provided by the Teaching Council. At one stage in the House we discussed the importance of that. The reason for the amendment is to ensure technology such as the Internet is utilised to provide up-to-date information to principals and school authorities on the resources available to them. It is one of the difficulties principals voice and it came up at the IPN conference. I suppose it is one of the excuses some principals use in hiring teachers who have retired.

It would be a positive development if the Teaching Council would provide this register. I am attempting to put it in legislation. If there was agreement from the Teaching Council that it would do this, I would be happy with that. The non-availability of such a register is an issue that is continually raised and the provision of this enhanced service would facilitate the employment of newly qualified teachers on a short-term basis or in a crisis. It would also help address the unjustifiable practice of employing recently retired teaching personnel on a temporary basis.

When I first moved the amendment, the Minister of State, Deputy Sherlock, rejected the concept of an online register of available teachers by citing the additional requirement this would place on the Teaching Council. He went on to state that under circular 31/2011, schools are required to keep a list of those appropriately qualified registered teachers who inform the school they are available for substitute teaching work.

In practice, there seems to be a difficulty, not only at primary level but perhaps more so at secondary level, in areas of speciality, for example, home economics. The management groups have all cited difficulties they have encountered in hiring a suitably qualified person, and this seems to apply throughout the country, although there does not seem to be a problem in some areas while there does seem to be in others. My amendment aims to facilitate and assist principals and others in such a situation. It is also about creating a system which does away with the need to call on recently retired teachers. That is why I put forward the amendment.

The Ceann Comhairle may say I am out of order on the following. The Teaching Council has a power whereby a teacher cannot be paid until a determination is made. That is also a difficulty and I do not know whether it will be addressed in the Bill. I note the Teaching Council must give one month's notice in that regard but there is a difficulty with that timespan in that the Teaching Council determines when the teacher gets paid. It might be a little late to review the matter at this stage, but perhaps the Minister will address that anomaly. There has been considerable criticism of the Teaching Council by teachers. The council needs to come up with initiatives and positive actions which would better enable it to engage with teachers. One such positive action would be, as I have proposed, providing an up-to-date online register of qualified teachers. The council might also have a role to play in assisting newly qualified teachers to secure employment. While it does a great deal of positive work, it is not getting that message across. An online register would be helpful in this regard.

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