Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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274. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to outline the position with an application (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28694/24]

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 Teaching Council is the professional standards body for the teaching profession, which promotes and regulates professional standards in teaching. The Teaching Council registers teachers under the Teaching Council Act 2001-2015 and in line with the . The Council registers teachers under five routes of registration. The minimum registration requirements for each route are set out in the Schedule of the Regulations. It operates in accordance with the EU Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications Directive (2005/36/EU as amended). My Department has no role in the registration of individual teachers.

As a statutory professional standards body, the Teaching Council is required by law to properly determine and to authenticate the relevant standards and qualifications of all applicants for registration. One of the ways the Council ensures and regulates standards is by ensuring that all teachers entering the profession in the Republic of Ireland have met the required standards. All applications from teachers who qualify outside of Ireland are processed in line with EU Directive for comparability with graduates of Teaching Council accredited programmes of initial teacher education.

Amongst other requirements, applicants for registration who qualified outside of the Republic of Ireland are required to submit copies of transcripts and module descriptors for all years of relevant study to facilitate a fair assessment for comparability.

The Teaching Council have informed me that the person that the Deputy is referring to in this query submitted a translated transcript on 21st May. Due to the period of time that has passed since qualifying as a teacher, the applicant has informed the Council that it is not possible for them to source Module Descriptors. The Teaching Council have advised that they will be in contact with the applicant to consider whether an alternative means of assessment can be established to enable registration as a Primary Teacher.