Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

144. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of teachers employed prior to 2007 that have registered for retrospective Garda vetting under the terms of the National Vetting Act and Teaching Council Acts; the outstanding number of applications to be processed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16845/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

On the 1 January 2017, there were approximately 32,500 teachers on the Teaching Council’s Register of Teachers who had not been previously garda vetted by the Council. This cohort of teachers were typically permanent teachers who have been in the same school since prior to the introduction of vetting in 2006. 

The Teaching Council Amendment Act 2015 Act has, inter alia,  provided for the retrospective vetting of registered teachers to  be carried out by the Teaching Council in the context of annual renewal of teacher registration.  In November 2016, I commenced the relevant provisions of the 2015 Act which provide for the Council to commence the task of retrospectively vetting the cohort of teachers who have never before been vetted.

The Teaching Council commenced this work in January of this year and to date has requested approximately 6,700 teachers to apply for retrospective vetting in the context of their annual renewal of registration.  It is intended that the remaining cohort of circa 25,800 teachers will be requested to apply for vetting on a phased basis during the remainder of 2017.