Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 6, line 18, after “Oireachtas” to insert “and if in employment in a recognised school, shall be informed in writing immediately”.

The first amendment relates to the section of the Bill which amends section 30 of the principal Act and concerns cases where a person is taken off the register of the Teaching Council, which results in them not being paid by the Oireachtas. While I accept that people should be registered and that their subscriptions would be up to date, in many cases it can and has happened that people do not know they have been taken off the register and they continue to work and only discover subsequently that they have not been paid. I believe some cases are before, or have been before, rights commissioners in the context of the Payment of Wages Act where people are contesting loss of income for periods during which they worked but because their subscription to the Teaching Council had lapsed, they were deregistered but were unaware that was the case.

There is no dispute about the need for people to be up to date with their subscriptions to the Teaching Council to be on the register, but they should be notified if their salary is to be suspended in order that they can move immediately to rectify the situation. That is the purpose of the amendment. We discussed the issue on Committee Stage but it is a fair amendment and the Government should take it on board.

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