Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The issue I bring to the attention of the Minister of State relates to the Teaching Council. A friend of mine contacted me about a month ago because of issues she was having registering with the Teaching Council. We had an interesting conversation. She then reached out to her peers and asked them to contact me about their experiences. To say that I was inundated with correspondence from teachers throughout the country is putting it mildly. They contacted me with problems, issues and challenges they have had with the Teaching Council in relation to their registration. It is clear to me, from the stories I have heard and the experiences of those I have listened to, that the Teaching Council needs to be reviewed and reformed. The stories and anecdotes about ongoing problems when trying to register include a general lack of support and shifting of the goalposts. One teacher said that is took her longer to register with the Teaching Council than it took her to become a teacher.

As we all know, it is vital to retain and attract high-quality teachers from home and abroad. I am concerned that many people’s experience with the Teaching Council is deterring them from choosing to come to or return to Ireland for teaching. One person who contacted my office spoke of his experience in trying to return to Ireland from the UK to take up a teaching post. The registration process took 270 days from start to finish. He was met with nothing but roadblocks, was not offered support or guidance, and spent many months chasing and following up with the Teaching Council, to no avail. He was out of pocket to the tune of €7,428.07. The problem was that because he was not registered as a teacher with the Teaching Council, he could not be paid as a teacher and was on a non-qualified substitute rate for that period. This gentleman had a postgraduate education from the University of Edinburgh, one of the top universities in the world. He is highly qualified and is a passionate advocate for education. He is exactly the type of person we should be supporting and welcoming with open arms into our education system. His experience is not an isolated occurrence. Many teachers, young and old, are being met with roadblock after roadblock. In situations where candidates do not get approved to teach a particular subject, there is no support and no guidance. Many teachers feel the Teaching Council is not fit for purpose.

We need to review the Teaching Council and its processes. Of course, while maintaining teaching standards is of vital importance, we need to ensure teacher who are qualified are not deterred from choosing to come back to Ireland to teach. Bureaucracy is a roadblock to people coming back to teach in Ireland. We cannot afford to sacrifice talent for bureaucracy and that is what is happening at the moment. There is a particular problem with overseas teachers relocating to Ireland, because of the registration issues. There is a requirement for vast amounts of documentation on every individual course taken. No flexibility is afforded. There is a lack of empathy and feedback, and a lack of timelines in responding to emails and phone calls. I rest my case. I hope the Minister of State takes what I have said about the Teaching Council on board.