Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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It is the policy of my Department that schools should only employ people who are on the register of teachers maintained by the Teaching Council. An integral part of the registration process is an assessment of a person's qualifications. Unqualified personnel should not be appointed except in the most exceptional circumstances and then only when all avenues for recruiting qualified personnel have been exhausted. This should only be for quite limited time periods.

Earlier this year my Department directed schools that persons proposed for appointment to publicly-paid teaching posts must be registered with the Teaching Council and have qualifications appropriate to the sector and the post. Only where an employer can satisfactorily demonstrate that every reasonable effort has been made to recruit an appropriately qualified and registered teacher may an unqualified or unregistered person be recruited, pending the recruitment of an appropriately qualified and registered teacher.

In addition, a reminder recently issued to school authorities to prioritise qualified teachers, particularly newly or recently qualified teachers, when making substitute and other temporary appointments. That first call must be given to teachers who are not in work and I appreciate the efforts of those schools who have responded positively to date.

The Education (Amendment) Bill, currently before the House, contains an amendment to section 30 of the Teaching Council Act 2001. Section 30 in its current form prohibits people who are employed as teachers from being paid from public funds unless they are registered with the council. It is not possible to commence the section without the amendment proposed in the Bill, for two reasons. First, there is a legacy issue pertaining to a small number of people teaching in our schools who have acquired employment rights and have a certain permanency within the system. Amending the section will allow for regulations to be made to identify and ring-fence these people. This is also entirely consistent with the approach laid down in the original Teaching Council Act, which recognised the legitimacy of rights of people currently in schools not to be displaced.

Second, we need a practical solution to the situation where urgent and exceptional circumstances may necessitate the engagement of an unregistered person. The Bill will provide for the first time for regulations to limit the engagement of unregistered people and will require schools to prioritise the employment of registered teachers over unregistered people while still ensuring that schools can operate.

Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister's statement that it is departmental policy to employ only qualified teachers. However, I ask her how she plans to implement that policy? If I was marking the Minister's card I would say she must try harder because it is obvious she is not implementing the policy. Tens of thousands of qualified teachers have to pay a registration subscription of €90 a year and they are unemployed while up to 400 unqualified teachers are still working. Rather than telling me it is the policy of the Department, what is the Minister doing to address this situation? Modern technology must make it very easy and I am unable to understand how the Minister can say it is impossible to contact qualified teachers. It should be very easy to contact them because they are waiting for the call.

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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There is currently no regulation and this means that unqualified and unregistered teachers can teach. We are introducing legislation to stop this. Many Members opposite are members of the teaching profession and know that the situation can arise where a qualified teacher is not available at short notice. I am proposing regulations arising from the discussions in the House on the Education (Amendment) Bill which will be time-limited and for use in extreme cases. I issued a circular because I am of the view that the last thing any of us want to see is retired people teaching when so many young teachers have not had the opportunity to do so. I have introduced a system of internship to allow schools take on unemployed teachers, similar to the FÁS graduate programme. This could at least give some people the opportunity to become probationary teachers. Another issue is that many young teachers do not have any teaching experience and therefore cannot apply for a full-time position. The INTO website shows teacher availability and it is incumbent on school principals to use registered and qualified teachers.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I am anxious to move on to the next question.

Ulick Burke (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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The Minister is inconsistent because she is introducing legislation that will regularise the employment of untrained teachers while at the same time she says it is her Department's policy not to employ any untrained teachers. I ask her to clarify her intentions in this regard.

Have whole-school evaluations been conducted in any of the schools employing untrained teachers? If so, there should have been a clear warning sign to the Minister and the Department that untrained and unqualified teachers are being used especially when 30% of graduates of University College Dublin were unemployed in 2009 and many of those are teachers. It is unacceptable that untrained teachers are being employed in schools.

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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It would be very easy for me to sign off on the amendment to the Education Act but I would then have a problem with regard to schools because of the legacy issue of a number of teachers as regards their employment rights-----

Ulick Burke (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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They are not teachers.

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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It is not a lot of teachers; it is a number of teachers. This matter will be dealt with through the historical situation-----

Ulick Burke (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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The Minister is undermining the Teaching Council.

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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I am not undermining it . I am regularising the situation because it is not currently regulated. I will be particularly specific on the time and circumstances when an unqualified person will be allowed to teach. Every effort must be made to ensure that a qualified teacher is available.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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A brief final supplementary question from Deputy McCormack.

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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I have heard the Deputies opposite say over the years that situations can occur when unqualified persons are employed as teachers. I do not wish to send children home and I am sure none of the Deputies opposite want that either.

Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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The Minister plans to introduce legislation. I question what her Department has been doing for the past ten years when this legislation was not introduced. Is the Minister aware that 400 retired teachers are still working instead of qualified teachers? A total of 100,000 pay days are being claimed by unqualified teachers. What is the Minister doing about this situation? I am one of the few Members on this side of the House who is not a teacher but I have a concern for the situation in which many qualified graduate teachers cannot get work and the Minister's Department is continuing the practice of employing up to 400 unqualified teachers.

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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It is not the Minister or the Department who employs retired teachers.

Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Who is the boss?

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The principal or the board of management-----

Ulick Burke (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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The Minister should instruct them.

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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I have done so. I have issued a circular. A number of boards of management are not particularly enamoured with my circular that retired teachers, in the main, should not be employed. There is an abatement of their pay. I do not think there is a man or woman in this House who disagrees with the fact that younger teachers who are unemployed should be -----

Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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The Minister should do something about it.

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy is incorrect. The situation is that I have issued a circular to indicate that it is clearly my view and that of the Department that those unqualified teachers and retired teachers should not be an option for classrooms.