Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 December 2023
359. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Education the number of school days in both primary and secondary level that were paid at the unqualified rate between 1 September to 6 December 2023; and the total amount of same. [55353/23]
View answerI wish to advise the Deputy that all teachers who are appointed to permanent teaching posts, or fixed term positions in schools, must be teachers who are registered with the Teaching Council.
It is also expected that teachers who are working in a substitute capacity, will be registered with the Teaching Council, which includes amongst other things, having a teaching qualification.
Section 30 of the Teaching Council Act commenced on 1 November 2013 and took effect on 28 January 2014. From then, all teachers in recognised schools must be registered with the Teaching Council in order to be paid by the State.
However, at the same time the Minister made regulations (further to amendment of Section 30 of the Teaching Council Act 2001 in the Education (Amendment) Act 2012), to enable a school in urgent or unforeseen circumstances e.g. to avoid closure of a school or cancellation of classes, to employ, for up to five consecutive days at a time, a person who is not registered as a teacher with the Teaching Council.
The figures I am providing show the number of persons who were employed by the managerial authorities of schools to work in a substitute capacity and were not registered with the Teaching Council at the time of the employment.
It should be noted that a person can be a qualified teacher, but may not be currently registered with the Teaching Council, or may have an application for registration pending. A teacher may also have retired from teaching but may not have continued to retain their registration with the Teaching Council.
The figures provided should therefore be viewed in this context.
For the period from 1st September 2023 to 6th December 2023, a total of 356,799 days substitutable leave absences arose in primary schools, of which 25,405 days were filled by persons who were not at that time registered with the Teaching Council.
For the same period, a total of 131,449 days substitutable leave absences arose in voluntary or community and comprehensive post primary schools, of which 29,725 days were filled by persons who were not, at that time, registered with the Teaching Council.
There are also circumstances in which teachers may be registered for a particular sector, such as the posts primary school sector, and are employed for a time as substitute teachers, in a sector other than that for which they are registered. Such teachers are paid at the unqualified substitution rate, despite the fact that they may be teachers who are unqualified and registered with the Teaching Council for another sector. Figures in respect of such payments have not been collated and are therefore not available. Accordingly the total cost of all unqualified payments for this period is also not readily available.
