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

The Government's view, which I am sure is shared by the Deputy as a member of the teaching profession, is that all teachers should be appropriately qualified and we must be able to stand over the quality of the teaching delivered in all schools. The commencement of section 30 of the Teaching Council Act will reinforce the Department's long-standing position that education in recognised schools funded by the State must be delivered by appropriately regulated professionals. This position must be maintained in the interests of providing the best possible education to students, which is the minimum that schoolchildren deserve. The commencement of section 30 is intended to buttress this policy and will help ensure we deliver a quality education to all of our children.

Bearing in mind the case made by the Deputy on specialised qualifications and experience of certain individuals outside the teaching profession, which would be of immense benefit to those participating in certain courses, as I indicated, we are identifying what are these specialist roles and we may seek to forego the requirement to have the individuals in question register with the Teaching Council under section 30 of the Act. The other anomalies raised will also be explored in this process.

Deputy Mitchell O'Connor described two different methods of educational delivery. The adult and community education sectors operate on a fundamentally different basis from primary and post-primary schools. The particular anomalies she described may be difficult to resolve but we will do our best to do so.

See this speech in context