Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am taking this topic on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn. I thank Deputy Mitchell O'Connor for raising the matter.

Section 30 of the Teaching Council Act 2001 is due to be commenced on 1 November 2013. It is designed to underpin the Department's policy of a registered and fully qualified graduate teaching profession. It prohibits payment by the State of people employed as teachers in recognised schools unless they are registered with the Teaching Council. It also facilitates the Teaching Council in promoting professional standards in teaching. It acts in the public good by upholding and enhancing the reputation and status of the teaching profession through fair and transparent regulation.

It has long been the policy of the Department of Education and Skills that only qualified and registered teachers should be employed by schools. Current recruitment procedures set out in circular 31/2011 require schools to ensure that teachers proposed for appointment to publicly paid posts are registered with the Teaching Council and have qualifications appropriate to the sector and suitable to the post for which they are proposed. Circular 25/2013, which advised of the commencement of section 30 on 1 November 2013, was published on 15 May and refers to the requirements for the recruitment of teachers following the commencement of section 30, and the small number of permitted exceptions from the requirement to employ registered teachers.

A further circular to be published shortly will contain the procedures for people and schools upon the commencement of section 30, following further consultation with staff representative and management bodies. Regulations governing the limited conditions under which an unregistered person may be employed after the commencement of section 30 have been drafted and will be published with the circular. I hope this will clarify the situation considerably for the Deputy. Schools have been advised to ensure that registration with the Teaching Council is included as a requirement when advertising vacant teaching posts and to seek evidence of current registration prior to offering positions.

As mentioned by Deputy and discussed at length over the past couple of weeks, there are certain specialist posts in the education sector that are occupied by people who are not qualified teachers but that have been traditionally classified as teaching posts. In some cases, these posts were always intended to be teaching posts. In other cases, positions are instructional in nature and a teaching qualification is not essential. It is in the educational interests of students that those delivering such courses have specialist qualifications or experience. It is also in the public interest that such courses and activities be allowed to continue. A number of courses delivered in our PLCs and certain specialist roles in special schools would fall into this category. The Department, in consultation with the management bodies, is currently identifying these posts and where they exist. Such posts will be reclassified and will not subject to the requirements of section 30. A list of these specialist posts will be made available shortly.

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