Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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399. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason a graduate diploma course (details supplied) is not recognised by the Teaching Council; if any engagements are ongoing in relation to the course’s recognition for credits; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7371/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Teaching Council is the regulator of the teaching profession in Ireland. Their role is to protect the public by promoting and regulating professional standards in teaching. They do this through the statutory registration of teachers, ensuring a highly qualified teaching profession, whose members meet and uphold high standards of professional competence and conduct. All initial teacher education programmes in Ireland that lead to registration must have professional accreditation from the Teaching Council.

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

The Teaching Council review and accredit programmes of initial teacher education only. The course which the Deputy has referred to in this query is not a programme of initial teacher education, and, therefore, the Teaching Council has no role to review or accredit this course.