Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister and his officials. This is a fairly significant Bill. As I see it, it amends the Education Act 1988. It is not a small matter at all. The previous Minister, Mary Coughlan, introduced a Bill in 2010 but she did not bring it to the Seanad so this is our first chance to give it a good reading. I am really only in the process of fully understanding the whole thing but I will raise approximately five points with the Minister.

Some key areas are built into this Bill. Senator Mullen raised the issue of section 24(3).

Under the section, boards of management will be consulted and it will no longer be necessary to reach agreement with them on the appointment and dismissal of teachers. This provision has created serious concerns. While I have no doubt the measure is intended in the best spirit and I accept the Minister may wish to acquire certain emergency powers, for example, in the case of a person who is blocking a panel and preventing a school from recruiting a teacher, the concern among the partners is that the Bill places the redeployment panel on a statutory footing and embeds it in legislation. The redeployment panel is already in place under the Croke Park agreement and, as such, teachers are protected. The fear, however, is that pupils are being overlooked. I ask the Minister to respond to allow me to tease out this issue.

Under section 15 of the Education Act, it is the responsibility of boards of management to deliver an appropriate education for each child. Members of boards believe that if the Minister chooses to impose teachers on their schools, rather than seeking agreement, as is the current position, the solution may not provide the right fit for the children of their school. I ask the Minister to clarify whether, in extreme circumstances, he will be able to decide which teacher is allocated to which school. Heretofore, such decisions were taken by agreement, which was a better arrangement. Why is this measure being introduced?

The primary concern among boards of management is that they are the employer whereas the Department of Education and Skills is the paymaster. This has always been a problem and in this case while the rights of boards of management as an employer are being diminished, their responsibilities remain intact. They fear their hands are being tied and cases may be taken to the High Court with the taxpayer footing the bill. I am keen to discover if this is the case. On a point of law, where would the ultimate responsibility reside if an appropriate education was not being delivered to the pupils of a school? As Senator Mullen noted, when a visiting teacher had to be redeployed last year the Department wrote to a school stating that it must employ a certain teacher. While I can accept this practice to some extent on the basis that visiting teachers are employed by the Department rather than specific schools, boards of management fear that this approach could become more widespread.

On unqualified teachers, given the battles we have all fought, it would be disingenuous and hypocritical of me to claim I could stand over any unqualified teacher entering the classroom. The Minister has said much the same thing. I ask the Minister to consider introducing an amendment on Committee Stage to implement a proposal I received from a school that he establish a unique panel to be used in exceptional circumstances where teachers cannot be found for schools in remote locations. The panel would then be deferred to provide an appropriate teacher, for example, in the case of a second level school which cannot find a teacher for a class. I was informed of a case where an honours engineering graduate was found for such a class. It would be possible to find high quality teachers if one had a panel with individuals on call. I ask the Minister to consider this proposal.

I am concerned about services for children with special needs. We are not sure who has ultimate responsibility in this area because the Health Service Executive has provided a highly inconsistent service across the country. The Minister indicated that speech therapy is not the responsibility of the HSE. Will he work with the executive to ensure speech therapy services are provided in schools or on the basis of clusters? Children are losing a significant amount of contact time because they are often required to leave school to avail of speech therapy? I had to deliver a child to the health board for speech therapy in the past, with the result that the child spent half a day outside the school.

The Minister indicated that DEIS and educational disadvantage remain a departmental priority. I am not convinced that is the case given the decision to confine the review of DEIS schools to urban areas only. As I informed the Minister this morning, unemployment in areas of Connemara stands at 80%. In some cases, children in DEIS schools have been able to get parents who cannot read excited about reading and scores are improving. DEIS has been wonderful. I ask the Minister to review his policy to find out what is working well.

I am pleased it has been decided to accredit teacher education programmes where it is appropriate to do so. It is good to review existing programmes. I also welcome the provision to increase the bachelor of education degree from three to four years. When will this take effect and when will the higher diploma in education be extended from 18 months to two years?