John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join Deputy Mary Mitchell O'Connor in welcoming yesterday's announcement by the Minister in regard to smaller schools and changes to the pupil-teacher ratio for smaller schools which hope to keep teachers on staff.

It is a welcome announcement which I want to acknowledge.

I welcome most of the provisions in the Teaching Council (Amendment) Bill and the underpinning of the statutory vetting arrangements, the subject of a large part of the Bill. I was undertaking some research about the Teaching Council before I came into the Chamber and was surprised to learn that there were still so many people involved in teaching who had not yet been fully vetted, despite, in some cases, having taught for many years.

As previous speakers said, the role of teachers in society is very important. I would not say I have a vested interest, but I was briefly an unqualified maths teacher, for the most horrific six months of my life, and I hope I will not have to return to it anytime soon. It did, however, give me an insight into the challenges facing teachers in their day-to-day work. Previous speakers mentioned the invaluable contribution teachers made to the lives of young people. Outside the immediate family, they have the capacity and are in a position to influence young people more than any other category of individuals. We can all remember from our own school days teachers who had a positive and lasting impression on our lives. I was thinking that when I entered third level education, I mostly studied economics, having only taken up the subject in fifth year purely down to the fact that I had had an inspirational teacher who, although a socialist and holding a slightly different political outlook, had had an impact on me and my interest in that subject. The sad reality is that for many young people today, in certain family situations, teachers have an even bigger role to play in providing stability in their lives. That is why teaching is such an important profession.

It is welcome that the Bill sets out a number of grounds on which complaints may be made such as poor professional performance, an issue mentioned by previous speakers. Most of those involved in the teaching profession, as in most other professions, are eminently suited to the job but some are not. The Bill, with its fitness to teach provisions, is a step in the right direction.

I understand that, like any such organisation, the Teaching Council costs money, but the most common issue about the council on which I interface with teachers concerns the level of fees charged. Teachers who qualified outside the State, in particular, can face fees of up to €200, with perhaps an additional fee of €100 for each post-primary subject taught. They could, therefore, face fees of €400 or €500, as well as an annual charge. That is a significant amount of money, particularly for newly qualified teachers and especially for those who had to obtain their qualifications outside the jurisdiction, thereby incurring associated costs. Such fees are, effectively, a barrier to entry in some instances. One can make the argument that those who work full time as teachers can earn a living from it and that such fees, in the overall scheme of things, are not significant. However, for newly qualified teachers, particularly those who qualified outside the jurisdiction, who may be trying to pay off educational loans, it can be an unwelcome extra burden.

I also raise the issue of the change from the one-year H.Dip. course to a two-year masters qualification. It has merit, but it must be noted that this is another significant extra cost for those who wish to qualify as teachers. In one sense, it could be looked on as a further barrier to entry into the teaching profession.

I welcome the principal provisions of the Bill. I welcome the fitness to teach provisions and the increased capacity of the Teaching Council to vet, such that Garda vetting can become an integral part of the teacher registration process and that all teachers will be fully vetted in the performance of their functions.

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