Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I am optimistic this issue is an oversight or an anomaly that the Government can rectify. It should not cost money to do so, which should provide some relief, as it is simply a matter of trying to sort out a problem faced by teachers, particularly those in vocational education committees. It was brought to my attention by teachers in the VEC in Dún Laoghaire but I understand it may affect up to 5,000 people working in VECs.

The Education (Amendment) Act 2012 required people to be registered with the Teaching Council for them to be paid by the State. There are many teachers working in the VECs who are unable to register with the Teaching Council because they do not have degrees, although they have worked for a long time with a VEC and are very well-qualified to do their teaching job. That is certainly the case with the individuals who came to me.

However, due to this legislation and a departmental directive to vocational education committees, VECs, teachers were told that they could no longer be paid out of the State purse as of the end of October.

Will the Minister of State rectify this anomaly? It is perfectly reasonable to introduce regulations on teachers' qualifications and registration. When the Act was passed, it may have been focused on the primary and secondary sectors wherein one would expect everyone to have degrees. In the vocational sector, a degree is not necessary for many people. The person who approached me was a soccer coach and had the highest possible qualifications in that regard. As he does not have a degree though, he cannot register with the Teaching Council, which means he is threatened with the loss of his job. He has worked for the VEC for 17 years. The person in the Dún Laoghaire VEC has worked there for 12 years and someone else has worked in a VEC for five or six years. Apparently, as many as 5,000 people may be in this limbo and are threatened with losing their jobs. Will the Minister of State amend the directive to allow for the teachers in question, many of whom have been working for a long time and are qualified in other ways to do their jobs, to register with the Teaching Council so their jobs will not come under threat and they can be paid by the VECs?

A related issue is that these workers should have contracts of indefinite duration, which is not currently the case. It seems that the VECs have failed in this worker's rights issue. We are referring to people who have been employed for 12 or 17 years. They are essentially working on a month-to-month basis with a guillotine hanging over their jobs. Does the Minister of State understand my point on the need to act on this matter and to ensure these teachers do not lose their jobs? The Teaching Council should be told to allow them to register and the VECs should be instructed to give contracts of indefinite duration to those who have an entitlement to such so they can have security of employment.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, who is travelling on Government business.

A number of developments will impact on teachers in VEC schools during the coming school year. First, the commencement of section 30 of the Teaching Council Act 2001 will prohibit the payment of people employed as teachers in recognised schools unless they are registered with the Teaching Council. I take the Deputy's point in this regard. The second major development will be enhanced requirements from April 2013 for registration with the Teaching Council as a further education teacher. The requirement for registration will be increased from a degree-level qualification to a requirement to hold a teacher training qualification in addition to an undergraduate level award.

Individuals without recognised qualifications who were employed in a teaching position or eligible to be employed in a teaching position in a recognised school at the time of the establishment of the Teaching Council in 2006 were deemed registered with the Teaching Council in its first year. Teachers were advised at the time to seek registration with the council and to ensure that their registrations were maintained. If such people availed of this entitlement at the time and subsequently maintained their registrations, there is no change to their position. A dispensation was given at the time and there is no basis for it to be given again.

It has been the policy of the Department of Education and Skills for some time that only qualified and registered teachers should be employed by schools. Current recruitment procedures direct schools to ensure that teachers proposed for appointment to publicly paid posts must be registered with the Teaching Council and have qualifications appropriate to the sector and suitable to the posts for which they are proposed.

Since 2006, any unregistered person employed by a VEC in a teaching post has been on notice that, once section 30 became law, there would be no basis to continue paying him or her. Therefore, such persons can have no reasonable expectation of continued employment beyond the period of time that it takes the school to source a registered teacher. It is expected that section 30 will be commenced later in the school year. This will ensure that only registered teachers are employed in teaching positions in our schools. Separate provision will be made for urgent situations where no registered teacher is available.

Notice of the imminent commencement of section 30 and the Teaching Council's registration requirements has been in the public domain for some time. Sufficient time has been available for individuals to engage with the Teaching Council to gain registration. It is the Government's view that all teachers should be appropriately qualified. This is surely the minimum that our children deserve. The commencement of section 30 is intended to buttress that policy and will be to the advantage of ensuring a quality education for all.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I understand that the Minister of State is working from a prepared script, which is fair enough, but I need him to address the issue. I understand the current position, but a dispensation is necessary. In the case I raised, and I suspect many others, the necessity of registering was not clear to teachers in 2006. A large number of teachers who have been working for many years, who possess qualifications and who are needed in their schools are not registered. They can no longer register because the Teaching Council will not allow them to do so. A dispensation should be made for this group of teachers so they do not lose their jobs.

It seems the legislation was focused on the primary and secondary sectors and did not take into account the peculiar characteristics of vocational education, including the different subjects and types of qualifications that do not necessarily fit neatly into the degree model required by the council. This needs to be recognised and accommodated. There are likely many teachers with different types of qualifications who should be allowed to register.

The Minister of State did not respond to my point on people's rights as workers. One is supposed to be entitled to a contract of indefinite duration after three years, yet the VECs do not seem to have provided them. Will the right of these workers to be employed be upheld?

I appeal to the Minister of State to provide a dispensation and to require the Teaching Council to allow teachers to register. It would be fair and reasonable. Will he address my points?

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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I respectfully assure the Deputy that I am working from a prepared script because I want to allow him the time-----

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I was not being critical.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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I know, but I want to internalise what we are saying. Given that this is a technical issue, it is important that my reply be carefully scripted.

The position is clear. We understand that some people in the mainstream primary, post-primary and post-leaving certificate, PLC, space, such as the gentleman to whom the Deputy referred, have contracts of indefinite duration and are employed in place of teachers. Where such an individual has been employed in an unqualified capacity since 2006, has allowed his or her registration to lapse and has taken no steps to become qualified in the intervening years, it will be a matter for that person to decide whether to take an approved, unpaid leave of absence to gain the necessary qualifications for registration.

As long as he or she remains unregistered, his or her capacity to be paid as a teacher in the public sector will be limited to the kind of short-term unforeseen employment which will be permissible under the ministerial regulations. From 1 April 2013, under the Teaching Council registration regulations 2009, the threshold for entry on the registry will increase in all categories of registration. Since the Department has already set registration as a requirement for employment in the above circulars, this higher threshold applies automatically in terms of employment from 1 April next independently of the section 30 requirements. The commencement of section 30 will reinforce the Department's longstanding position that education in recognised schools funded by the State must be delivered by appropriately regulated professionals. I do not think anybody would argue against that. This position must be maintained in the interests of providing the best possible education for the very students about whom we are talking.