Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I understand the reason for the Teaching Council and it is important it is efficient and effective. For the 109,000 teachers who are registered, there is a €65 fee, so there is quite a substantial amount of money going into the Teaching Council every year. However, the Teaching Council is not serving the teachers. I have a full file on those who have contacted me and that is just the tip of the iceberg in the issues they have had. I am sending that to the Minister for Education and I have also asked the Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to take up this issue of a review because it is very important. The significant delays I have outlined have caused a lot of problems and challenges for teachers, from a financial perspective as well as the possibility of them getting and keeping a job. Once they start, if teachers do not have their Teaching Council number, they are not allowed to apply for that job again, which puts them back in the jobs market. There is a lot of work to be done in reviewing the Teaching Council's function.