Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

445. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of current primary teachers and post-primary teachers that have been Garda vetted; the number of both that remain to be vetted; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46044/14]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Garda vetting arrangements for the schools sector operate on a non-statutory basis and have been in place for new employees since 2006. The vetting arrangements were updated in 2010 and are set out in Department Circular 0063/2010.

The vetting arrangements will operate on a statutory basis when the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012 is commenced. Some amendments are being made to this Act by the Minister for Justice and Equality before it is commenced.

The number of teachers vetted under the non-statutory arrangements continues to steadily increase. There are 90,121 teachers on the Teaching Council register and 53,753 of them have been vetted. This represents about 60% of the teachers on the register. A breakdown of these teachers by sector is attached for the Deputy's information.

The remaining balance of 36,368 that are not vetted are typically permanent teachers who have been in the same school since prior to 2006. Over the years the lack of capacity in the Garda Central Vetting Unit has been an impediment to getting all these existing teachers vetted.

The Garda Central Vetting Unit indicated to the Department, at a meeting in July 2014, that it now has capacity to vet these remaining teachers that were never vetted.

However, if this is done now under the current non-statutory vetting arrangements it would be confined to a check for criminal offences.

The forthcoming statutory vetting arrangements include a check for relevant "soft information" which is an important new aspect of the vetting arrangements. "Soft information" is referred to as "specified information" in the National Vetting Bureau Act 2012 and is information other than criminal convictions held by the Garda Síochána where such information leads to a bona-fide belief that a person poses a threat to children or vulnerable persons.

Given that the forthcoming statutory vetting arrangements will include a check for both criminal offences and also any relevant "soft information" the Department considers that at this stage it is better from a child protection perspective to wait for the vetting of these teachers to be done under the forthcoming statutory vetting arrangements. This will also dovetail with the amendments that are being made to the Teaching Council Act which include: (a) Linking compliance with the vetting arrangements with renewal of registration; (b) Strengthening the Fitness to Teach provisions so as to provide an appropriate mechanism for assessing a teacher's fitness to remain on the register if a vetting disclosure received in respect of a teacher indicates any potential risk of harm to a child. Removal of a teacher from the Teaching Council register is the best way of achieving child protection across all schools.

It is intended that all registered teachers will be vetted under the statutory vetting arrangements as soon as possible after the legislation is commenced.As of 27/11/2014 there were 90,121 teachers on the Register. 53,753 have been vetted.

The breakdown by sector is as follows: