Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Broadly, we will support the passage of the Bill and welcome its introduction into the House. Fianna Fáil has been calling on the Minister to address the inadequate Garda vetting of new and existing teachers in our schools for a long time and we welcome the mandatory vetting procedures provided for in the legislation. We also call on the Minister to follow through on the provisions by ensuring Garda vetting for new and existing teachers is treated as a priority, expedited and properly resourced. The Teaching Council and Teachers Union of Ireland, TUI, have certain reservations about the fitness to practice elements of the Bill. Fianna Fáil is committed to addressing these concerns where possible through amendments and proper debate of the Bill. These concerns were addressed when changes were made to the fitness to practice hearings of other professions in the last few years.

The Bill has two main aims. It underpins the role of the Teaching Council in the forthcoming statutory vetting arrangements for registered teachers and it amends the Teaching Council Act 2001 and Education Act 1998 by strengthening the statutory provisions relating to the Teaching Council's fitness to teach function. The Teaching Council is made up of two thirds teachers and their union representatives. Under this legislation, the council will have the capacity to remove a teacher from its register where it deems the person unfit to teach, including where this is for child protection reasons. The Council will also be charged with investigating underperformance or conduct issues on foot of complaints from students, parents and teachers, among others.

Currently, the Teaching Council's role is to determine whether an individual is deemed suitable to be registered as a teacher. The Bill provides that Garda vetting will be a mandatory part of the registration process for future candidates. It also gives the council the power to retrospectively require the vetting of registered teachers and periodic re-vetting of registered teachers. In deciding upon the vetting of currently registered teachers, the council will consider whether or not to vet the teacher if it has received a vetting disclosure under the non-statutory arrangements and with regard to the time elapsed since any prior Garda vetting. This means registered teachers who have never been Garda vetted as well as those who have not been vetted in a long time are prone to being vetted by the council. Figures from the Teaching Council last October showed that approximately 40% of its 90,000 registered teachers had yet to be Garda vetted. Statutory vetting arrangements will, in addition to the existing check for criminal offences, also include a check for any relevant soft information. This is referred to as specified information that leads to a bona fide belief that a person poses a threat to children or vulnerable persons.

The Bill makes some amendments which intend to strengthen and clarify the fitness to teach provisions of the Teaching Council Act before their commencement. It sets out a number of matters about which a complaint may be made and expands the list of parties from which evidence can be required as part of a fitness to teach inquiry. It clarifies that conduct which raises child protection concerns and which occurred prior to the enactment of this Bill can be examined in a fitness to teach inquiry provided the conduct concerned would have constituted a criminal offence when it occurred. It improves the capacity of the Teaching Council to deal with complaints which indicate a risk of harm to a child or vulnerable adult by empowering it to seek a vetting disclosure in respect of the teacher concerned as part of a fitness to teach inquiry. The Bill makes it easier to remove teachers from posts with the requirement for a full finding of unfitness to teach by allowing a new sanction of "advice, admonishment or censure" of teachers. Fitness hearings are scheduled to take place later this year under the auspices of the council.

Any person, including the council, can make a complaint to the investigating committee on the grounds of a teacher's failure to comply with teaching regulations, or professional misconduct and poor professional conduct including engaging in conduct contrary to the code of professional conduct. A complaint can also be made if a teacher's registration is based on erroneous information or disclosures, if he or she is medically unfit to teach or if he or she is convicted in the State or outside the State for an offence leading to trial on indictment if it occurred in the State.

Fianna Fáil has been calling for the implementation of mandatory Garda vetting of new teachers and the retrospective vetting of existing teachers for some time. Therefore, we welcome the fact that the Bill broadens the complaints for professional misconduct which can be brought to the council for investigation. However, we would like assurances from the Minister that adequate protections, appeals and redress procedures are put in place to ensure complaints that are made against teachers cannot be turned into a witch-hunt against certain teachers. It is the Minister's intention to seek amendments at a further Stage of the Bill, to include a provision that hearings of the investigation committee into complaints made against teachers will be held in public as the default position. The announcement has drawn a negative reaction from teacher unions and teaching staff. The council has advised the Minister that the decision on whether hearings should be made in public or in private should be made on a case-by-case basis, rather than being held in public as the default position. It justified this advice on the basis that Ireland is a small place and the fact that a teacher is up before a panel will be widely known with the potential for an impact on their reputation even if no finding is made against them. The TUI has said it would be extremely unfair if teachers were brought before public hearings, except in cases of serious misconduct. It seems a more reasonable position that the decision over whether hearings should be held in public or private should be taken, with a full knowledge of the facts on the ground, on a case-by-case basis by the council, rather than as a default position.

Some 40% of teaching staff have not been Garda vetted. Delays in the implementation of the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012 have created a loophole in the system, which is effectively allowing teachers to work in schools without being fully cleared by the authorities. While the mandatory Garda vetting provided for in this Bill is to be welcomed as a necessary, basic step to protect students, these measures must be enforced in full and without exception. It is worrying that the Minister has not set out a timeframe today within which all teachers are to be vetted. Resources must be allocated to the Garda vetting unit to reduce the backlog and ensure that all teachers are cleared. It is unacceptable that more than 36,000 teachers have gone unchecked to date. This is a failure of the Government which must be remedied promptly.

There is a need to highlight the exceptional job that is done by the overwhelming majority of teachers, and I know the Minister would agree. For example, the chief inspector's report 2013 endorsed the excellent job being done by Irish teachers, with 87% of parents happy with teaching standards in Irish schools. Against the odds, teaching standards have been upheld in the context of recent cutbacks in primary and second-level schools, including the reduction in teacher numbers and a moratorium on middle management posts. Many of the weaknesses or slippages in standards that have been identified correspond directly to areas affected by the education cuts, including access to career guidance services and the leadership capacity of schools. Unfortunately, the Minister has not done enough to support teachers and management in schools in their efforts to keep up the quality teaching standards. Even yesterday's proposed changes to small school teacher numbers do not go far enough and it is little more than tokenism for the many schools which have already suffered cuts over the past two or three years and whose teacher numbers will not be restored as a result.

While these changes are a small improvement, nothing less than a full reversal of the damaging measures imposed by the former Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, is required. While the new policy announced yesterday acknowledges the scale of the cuts to which small schools have been subjected, it is no more than optics in that it does not reflect the reality on the ground. Population increases have resulted in an increase in enrolment figures and it is incumbent on the Minister to ensure schools are equipped to cater for these growing pupil numbers. In her statement yesterday she did not reflect this or make any move to address it.

Despite these new retention thresholds, schools which have increased their student numbers from 52 to 55 will not be entitled to a third teacher, while a school where pupil numbers have dropped from 56 to 53 will retain a teacher. This is unfair and inequitable and should be reviewed. In this instance both schools should be entitled to a third teacher. Similarly, a school that has gone from 82 to 85 pupils this year will not be allocated a fourth teacher whereas a school that has seen a drop from 86 to 83 students will retain its fourth teacher.

While we welcome the Bill, which has many technical aspects, it needs to be reflected in real actions which will improve the lot and situation of teachers on the ground and better equip them to play their role. Oversight is a key part of the responsibilities of the Minister and the Department. It is crucial that we have appropriate vetting procedures in place and that we move promptly to a situation where all teachers are vetted. It is also appropriate and necessary that there is correct oversight of fitness to practise and quality. It is also important to ensure there are sufficient teachers to provide a quality education service. The Government has made it very difficult for teachers in the 50% of primary schools that have fewer than five teachers to provide the service they would like to. That has led to real pinch points and higher class sizes in many of those schools.

I urge the Minister to go the full way. She has finally acknowledged that the Government’s policy is putting real pressure on the schools in her small row back yesterday. Nothing less than a full row back is required to provide for the appropriate number of teachers for schools with growing numbers of pupils. The Minister knows better than anyone that there is a bulge in the population moving through schools. The number of schools with increasing pupil numbers and in need of additional teachers outweigh those losing pupils and which face losing teachers. The Minister’s move yesterday would help address this situation in the 30 schools due to lose a teacher next September. That will not in any way affect those who have already lost teachers or those who should have gained teachers if the Minister had not increased the threshold of students.

I urge the Minister alongside the Bill, considering her announcement yesterday, to go the full hog. I welcome her announcement that she will publish the value for money report after the Government has sat on it for over two years. I note that finally the Minister seems to have concluded she will not go ahead with the recommendations contained therein. That comes after much damage has been done to the school system by measures the Government has introduced in the past three years and which she indicated will not be reversed between now and the next general election. I look forward to a comprehensive debate on that report when it is published next week. I also look forward to the debate on the next Stages of this Bill and its passage through the House.

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