Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this matter, which gives me an opportunity to outline the role of the Teaching Council and its current structures and to highlight the role played by the Teaching Council to support teacher supply during Covid-19.

The Teaching Council was established in 2006 on a statutory basis through the Teaching Council Acts 2001 to 2015, to promote teaching as a profession; to promote the professional development of teachers; to maintain and improve the quality of teaching in the State; to provide for the establishment of standards, policies and procedures for the education and training of teachers; and to provide for the registration and regulation of teachers to enhance professional standards and competence. The Teaching Council Acts govern membership of the council, funding, accountability and the council's relationship with the Minister for Education. The council consists of 37 members.

The council has responsibility to operationalise the provisions of the Acts, including the development of organised structures and collaborative strategies for the regulation of the teaching profession, and it is responsible for the conduct of its affairs. Under section 55 of the Teaching Council Act 2001, the council prepares and publishes an annual report detailing its activities and proceedings. The council provides the Department of Education with a copy of the report and the report is laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas. The annual report documents how the Teaching Council has implemented the Teaching Council Acts and progress of the council's strategic objectives.

Responsibility for the development and implementation of policy on education, including the performance of teachers, rests with the Minister under the education Acts 1878 to 2015. The Minister may seek advice from the Teaching Council under its enabling Act. As a body under the Department of Education, the Teaching Council adheres to the code of practice for the governance of State bodies. The agency governance framework is in place between the Department and the Teaching Council. This agency governance framework was established in 2018 in accordance with applicable statutory provisions, relevant national strategies, Government policies and the code of practice for State bodies.The agency's governance framework is due for review and renewal in 2021.

I acknowledge the important role the Teaching Council has played to support the supply of teachers over the past year during Covid-19. Following engagement with the council, the higher education institutes, HEIs, providing post-primary professional master of education programmes introduced flexibility in their course delivery to increase the amount of time which student teachers on school placement could provide for supervision and substitution, outside of their placement hours. In addition, the council has communicated with professional master of education students, through the HEIs, encouraging them to register with the council and to register also their availability with Sub Seeker, the recruitment portal which matches teachers with substitutable vacancies. The council has reassigned resources to this task to ensure applications for registration arising from this measure are processed as quickly as possible.

As an additional measure for 2020 and 2021, the council made a regulation allowing teachers who had qualified outside of Ireland to complete their induction here. This measure will again be put in place for the coming school year on a time-bound and exceptional basis. There are almost 109,000 teachers on the Teaching Council register. During the peak period of applications for registration between May and September 2020, almost 5,000 new registrations were processed.