James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Question 161: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason a person (details supplied) in County Westmeath has now been prevented from taking up employment as a resource teacher due to not being a registered teacher, despite years of training and experience in psychology and teaching; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12789/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The Teaching Council aims to promote and maintain the highest standards of teaching, learning and professional conduct in our schools. It is the policy of my Department that only a teacher registered with the Teaching Council, and who has qualifications appropriate to the sector and suitable to the post for which he or she is proposed, should be employed by schools. Unregistered personnel should not be appointed except in exceptional circumstances and then only when all avenues for recruiting registered teachers have been exhausted and only for quite limited time periods.

Where an individual wishes to teach in a school funded by the Oireachtas then they should contact the Teaching Council to assess their eligibility for entry to the register of teachers. Registration under Regulation 2 (Primary) or 3 (Montessori and Other Categories) are currently recognised as appropriate registration in order to gain access to the qualified rate of pay as a resource teacher in a special school setting. Registration as a Post Primary teacher (Regulation 4) is also acceptable where a proportion of the pupils attending the special school are of post primary age (i.e. 12 years or older) and where second level programmes are provided by the school.