Joe O'Toole (Independent)

In the past ten to 15 years, I raised the importance of having a vetting process for people who would be in charge of children. That was eventually conceded and agreed to by the Government. However, I discovered something disturbing in recent weeks. The vetting process for teachers is being done by the Teaching Council, which is the council that approves the qualifications of teachers and so on. That system has been done in the North of Ireland for quite some time and it is welcome. Unfortunately, while the members of the Teaching Council are happy to do this, they have no statutory basis or power to do it. We will walk ourselves into a major problem with this. Somebody may take action against somebody else and difficulties will arise.

At the moment, the Teaching Council will obtain information from the Garda about a person who has faced charges and who has been found guilty of particular breaches of the law. This can then be made available to boards of management or others who seek to employ a teacher. That is all very well in theory and it is what we want. Unfortunately, the council has no statutory authority to do this, which raises issues about data protection. The council will now have information which will be protected mainly by data protection laws. Gardaí are also prepared to give all manner of information, including what is euphemistically described as soft evidence and information about people against whom charges were made but who were not convicted.

The issue of child protection was raised this week in Wexford and it comes up in this House every few weeks. The issue surrounding the Teaching Council needs a minor legislative change to get it right. When the day arrives that it gets it wrong, we will all be asking whether anyone noticed this. The Teaching Council is prepared to take on this role. The structures are in place, but it needs the statutory power to do it. I would like the Minister to explain it to us, but I realise it may be too late to ask her to come to the House. However, the information should be brought to her attention.