Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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452. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her views on the difficulties that young primary school teachers are experiencing finding employment, probation and substitute work; her plans to address problems in this area; if her Department has issued circulars on best practice relating to the recruitment of teaching staff; if concerns have been conveyed to her regarding the general recruitment process in the primary sector; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46105/14]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Section 30 of the Teaching Council Act, which became operational on 28 January this year provides that teachers in recognised schools must be registered with the Teaching Council, the professional standards body for teachers, to be paid by the State.

Alongside Section 30, the Education Act 1998 (Unregistered Persons) Regulations 2014 were also put in place. This allows schools only in urgent or unforeseen cases to engage an unregistered person for up to 5 days at a time. Circular 52/2013 issued by my Department provides details of the procedures to be followed by school managerial authorities following commencement of section 30 of the Teaching Council Act.

A number of measures have been taken in recent years to facilitate newly qualified teachers in achieving full registration with the Teaching Council. The minimum service requirement for probation for primary teachers has been reduced from 170 days to 100 days. Furthermore in certain circumstances the Teaching Council will facilitate teachers who have to travel overseas to secure employment by removing the condition of Probation if they successfully complete a comparable process overseas, provided that this process is certified by the competent authority in the state in question e.g. a teaching council or Ministry of Education.

New teachers may avail of the Department of Social Protection's JobBridge National Internship scheme to gain experience and to undertake necessary teaching duties to complete the process of probation and fulfil the requirements for full registration with the Teaching Council. The Work Placement Programme also provides opportunities for graduates to gain work experience in employment in public, private and voluntary sectors.

The recruitment and appointment of teachers to fill teaching posts is a matter for the individual school authority, subject to procedures agreed under Section 24(3) of the Education Act 1998 (as amended by the Education (Amendment) Act 2012). The Constitution of Boards and Rules of Procedure document 2011 sets out the procedures for appointment of teachers and special needs assistants at primary level.

Circular 31/2011 details a cascade of measures for recruitment of teachers, prioritising unemployed registered teachers over retired registered teachers and registered teachers over unregistered persons.

Each principal must report to his or her board of management on a regular basis on the fact that a list of unemployed registered teachers is being maintained, and the circumstances in which he or she has had to engage a registered teacher in receipt of a pension under a public service pension scheme or an unregistered person.

The allocation of additional funding for the employment of teachers due to the increase in numbers of pupils in the 2015 Budget will assist in creating additional positions which will further assist newly qualified teachers to obtain positions.