Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)
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218. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her views on a matter (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [54003/22]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Teaching Council have responsibility to determine the procedures that apply to the conduct of inquiries, in accordance with their legislative mandate to conduct inquiries. As the sanctions that may result must be referred to the High Court for approval, a higher burden of proof is applied.

Section 42(9) of the primary legislation refers to the Investigating Committee considering whether there is a prima facie case. The word "serious" does not appear in the primary legislation. However, assessing whether there is a prima facie case involves considering the seriousness of the complaint. There is case law which emphasises the fact that there is a threshold of seriousness to be met when a complaint screening committee is deciding whether to refer the complaint for an inquiry. These cases include Corbally v the Medical Council and a more recent case of B.M. v the Fitness to Practice Committee of the Medical Council [2019] IEHC 106 where the Court noted that "before deciding to take further action on a complaint, the PPC (i.e. the equivalent to the Investigating Committee of the Teaching Council) must be satisfied as to the seriousness of the complaint".

Where a complaint is refused at complaint screening stage by the Investigating Committee, there is no right of appeal in the legislation. This is consistent with the legislation for many other professional regulators such as the Medical Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Board and CORU.

Guidelines on the complaints procedure can be found on the Teaching Council website.