Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Question 195: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills if she will respond to representations (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35957/10]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The appointment of teachers to fill teaching posts is a matter for the individual school authority subject to agreed procedures. It is the policy of my Department that only qualified personnel should be employed by schools. This policy is reflected in Circular 40/2010 which my Department issued earlier this year. Under its terms, schools are directed to ensure that teachers proposed for appointment to publicly paid teaching posts are registered with the Teaching Council and have qualifications appropriate to the sector and suitable to the post for which they are proposed. Where an employer can satisfactorily demonstrate that every reasonable effort has been made to recruit an appropriately qualified and registered teacher, an unqualified and/or unregistered person may be recruited pending the recruitment of an appropriately qualified and registered teacher and this provision must be inserted in the employment contract. The employer must repeat the process to recruit an appropriately qualified and registered teacher within the period of any such contract and in any event within the school year. In addition, the recently published Education (Amendment) Bill contains an amendment to section 30 of the Teaching Council Act 2001. This amendment confers on the Minister the power to regulate the limited and exceptional circumstances in which a person who is not a registered teacher may be employed and the conditions attaching to that person's employment.