Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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181. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans regarding the DIP after September 2017 (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17561/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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In 2012, the Teaching Council took over responsibility for the induction and probationary processes for teachers. Since then, at the request of the Teaching Council, the Inspectorate of the Department of Education and Skills has operated probationary inspections arrangements for newly qualified teachers. This was agreed in order to allow the Teaching Council time to develop, trial and put in place more appropriate induction/probation arrangements to enable teachers gain full registration with the Council.

In the meantime, the Teaching Council has established standards for post-qualification professional practice, as set out in Droichead, the new model of induction and probation for newly qualified primary and post-primary teachers. The Droichead programme promotes ongoing, sustained professional development through an initial period of in-school induction and mentoring and gives effect to one of the Teaching Council’s primary functions – that of peer regulation and setting the standards of entry into the profession and registration as a teacher.

The Droichead programme was the subject of a three-year pilot before it was approved by the Council in March 2016. The programme is being introduced on a phased basis since last September. Inherent to this policy is a structure to support the growth and development of Droichead over a number of years, whereby the availability of the traditional Inspectorate route to gaining full registration with the Council (known as probation) will be phased-out in favour of the new Droichead path for the early professional development of teachers and their induction into the profession. The growth and development phase of the Teaching Council’s Droichead policy has identified teachers employed in a special education or restricted setting to be the first cohort of teachers for whom Droichead would be the only route available to achieve full registration with the Council during the 2016-17 school year. The traditional probation route, therefore, is not available to these teachers during this initial and in subsequent phases of Droichead.

While a new policy on teacher probation was adopted by the Teaching Council in December 2016, this does not change the requirement for teachers in a special education setting to avail of Droichead in order to gain full registration with the Teaching Council during the current school year.

My Department is considering the impact of the new policy adopted by the Council.