Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Under the Teaching Council Acts 2001-2015 the Teaching Council is the body with the statutory authority and responsibility for the regulation of the teaching profession in Ireland including the registration of Teachers in the State.

The Council registers teachers under the Teaching Council Acts 2001-2015. There are five routes of registration with the Teaching Council which are namely Route 1: Primary, Route 2: Post-primary, Route 3: Further Education, Route 4: Other and Route 5: Student Teacher. The registration requirements for each route are set out in the Teaching Council (Registration) Regulations 2016.

As you are aware, the Council implemented an amendment to the Registration Regulations in 2023 to enable overseas qualified teachers to complete induction through the Droichead process in Ireland. Droichead has been developed to support newly qualified teachers following their instruction in the Irish curriculum to gain supervised school-based instruction and additional professional learning, building on their academic achievement.

The Droichead programme is extensive, involving schools, teachers, and OIDE, the professional development service for teachers. To give an idea of the scale, a total of 6,598 teachers engaged in the Droichead process across the two academic years of 2021/2022 and 2022/2023, the vast majority of those being NQTs from Irish programmes initial teacher education.

Through continuous engagement with the Council on this matter, I can advise that there have not been any further developments in relation to your query on the Teaching Council (Registration) (Amendment). It remains with the Teaching Council and is under active consideration, including relevant legal advice in the context of regulatory requirements including those mandated by the EU.

Any updates in this regard will be published on the Teaching Council website, www.teachingcouncil.ie.