Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

The provisions contained within the Bill prohibit the Department or vocational education committee from paying an individual who is employed in a school in the place of a registered teacher in a post to be funded by the Oireachtas. Effectively, the Senator's amendment would appear to insulate an employer from legal consequences of the dismissal of every teacher whose registration with the Teaching Council lapses. That is a step too far and I will explain the reason. The Bill does not provide for a direction to dismiss the employee. That is primarily for two reasons. First, most teachers are employed by the board of management of their school. The relationship between the teacher and the Department is not one of employer for most purposes. An exception to this is pay. To provide that a person would be automatically dismissed from his or her job if not registered would require the Minister to interpose himself between the teacher and his or her employer, usually the school's board of management. Therefore, section 30 is couched around a prohibition to pay salary if a person is not registered.

Second, it may be the case that a person can register with the Teaching Council, possibly within a short space of time, therefore dismissing him or her from a teaching position would seem to be inappropriate and unfair. I am not sure that it is likely that he or she would be employed for a minimum of two years. If I am correct the provisions of the Unfair Dismissals Acts do not take effect until after two years.