Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

This matter was raised in the Seanad and on Committee Stage. The combined effect of section 30 of the Teaching Council Act 2001 with this Bill, when enacted, will be to prohibit the payment of a person employed as a teacher in a recognised school unless he or she is a registered teacher. The only exception to this will be where due to urgent temporary or occasional staffing needs, it is necessary to employ an unregistered person. Therefore, the pay of a teacher must stop if his or her registration lapses.

The issue of payment needs to be isolated from any other issue that might arise. The Bill does not provide for a direction to dismiss a teacher who is not recognised, nor does it confer immunity from litigation in respect of a board of management or VEC that took disciplinary action solely as a result of a person no longer being registered with the council. A protection for schools against an unfair dismissal claim along the lines being advocated by this amendment would be arbitrary and disproportionate. It would mean that a person whose registration lapses for even one day could be dismissed summarily and without recourse to the Employment Appeals Tribunal.

Different types of circumstances may arise for a person being unregistered after the commencement of section 30. In some cases, the person might inadvertently cease to be registered due to an oversight on his or her part. The number of days on which he or she is not registered might be very low. In those cases any sort of disciplinary action might be regarded as inappropriate. In other cases, the person may need a significant period of time to gain the necessary qualifications to become registered. In these cases it may be appropriate to facilitate that person by granting him or her a period of unpaid leave. Equally, there may be cases where a person simply chooses not to register, despite the fact he or she has all the necessary qualifications.

In any of these circumstances, there is no termination of the employment of the unregistered person; he or she simply cannot be paid from Oireachtas funds while he remains unregistered. If a person takes other action, such as absenting himself or herself from the school without permission, this should be treated in the same way as if he had done so while being paid. In other words, this is a matter that is separate and should be treated separately.

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