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

Having listened to all the arguments, I am not satisfied with the Minister's response. If she acknowledges the point we are making, then she should accept the amendments. The Corbally case in the Supreme Court underlines the need for a requirement that any complaint in such cases be serious in nature. It is an important threshold which a complainant should have to meet. Any reasonable person will acknowledge there is a potential in a profession like teaching for vexatious, trivial and unjustified complaints. As Deputy Coppinger noted, "poor professional performance" is a very broad term and one that is much too subjective. Unless it is qualified significantly, we will have a situation where all the onus is on the teacher for failures that are not his or hers.

As I understand it, the Supreme Court found in the Corbally case that systems failures had to be taken into consideration in adjudicating on any complaint, that is, issues such as the resources available, management issues and all types of other factors that could potentially contribute to instances of poor performance which are not, in fact, the fault of the person against whom the complaint is made. Otherwise, the subject of the complaint might become the fall guy. Against the background of swingeing cutbacks and austerity policies which have led to overcrowded classrooms, special needs assistant caps and so on, the potential for teachers to be accused of poor professional performance when the problem at hand is not really their fault is considerable. Deputy Coppinger, who has direct experience in this regard, has underlined that point clearly.

There is an overwhelming argument, backed up by the Supreme Court, that we need to be much tighter, more precise and fairer in dealing with teachers in situations where serious allegations which could be very damaging to their reputation, character and future career are at stake. We must be much more precise as to the thresholds that have to be meet for making a complaint which might lead to a fitness-to-practise inquiry. The amendments I am proposing are fair and reasonable and would provide some safeguard for teachers by introducing that threshold of seriousness. I reiterate that all the teacher unions, the ASTI, the INTO and the TUI, have made similar points. The wording they propose for discussion in the Seanad will probably be slightly different from mine but the intention will be the same. I am obliged to mark the Minister's card on this because it is a serious issue. I hope she will reconsider this proposal.

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