This is a Seanad Bill which has been amended by the Dáil. In accordance with Standing Order 118, it is deemed to have passed its First, Second and Third Stages in the Seanad and is placed on the Order Paper for Report Stage. On the question "That the Bill be received for final consideration", the Minister may explain the purpose of the amendments made by the Dáil. This is looked upon as the report of the Dáil amendments to the Seanad. For the convenience of Senators, I have arranged for the printing and circulation of these amendments to them. The Minister will deal with the subject matter of the amendments in the group. I have also circulated the proposed grouping to Members. A Senator may contribute once on the grouping. I remind Senators that the only matters that may be discussed are the amendments made by the Dáil.
Education (Amendment) Bill 2012 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report and Final Stages
During the passage of the Education (Amendment) Bill 2012 through Dáil Éireann, a number of amendments, five in all, were made to the Bill. These were made both on Committee Stage, which was taken on 29 March, and on Report Stage, which was taken on 2 May. Three of the five amendments were introduced following advice received from the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel to the Government and the Office of the Attorney General.
Amendment No. 1, the first of these, was introduced on Committee Stage. It provides additional guidance for the Minister of the day when making procedures and determining matters under the Education Act. This amendment will require the Minister, in carrying out his functions, to have regard to the following: best practice in teaching methods; value for money; and quality outcomes for students. This puts in place more restrictions on how the Minister of the day carries out his or her functions, by ensuring that the principles and policies to which he or she must have regard are spelled out in primary legislation. This stipulation will be in addition to the requirement to consult with stakeholders in education, where this is provided for under the Act. The Office of the Attorney General advised that this amendment was necessary in order to ensure that the discretion of the Minister is limited by specifying the considerations to which he must have regard.
Does the Minister wish to speak on the subject matter of group 2? The amendments are not agreed individually. We will deal with them all together under the one question.
Amendments Nos. 2 and 4 are drafting amendments. These amendments were highlighted by the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel in the course of the legislative process. Amendment No. 2 was a Committee Stage amendment introduced to improve the readability of the new section 23(1)(c) of the Education Act. It removes a comma from after the word "school" in the third line and replaces it after the word "responsible" in the first line. This is a straightforward drafting amendment and there is no substantive change to the provision. The requirement in section 30 to be registered applies to people employed as teachers in recognised schools rather than in any other education or training settings. In this context, there are references throughout the Bill to a "registered teacher" in a "registered school".
Amendment No. 4, introduced on Report Stage, simply includes identical wording to ensure consistency through the Bill's provisions.
We will move on to group three amendments.
The implementation of section 30 of the Teaching Council Act 2001 must involve an ongoing dialogue between the Teaching Council, my Department and the VECs. Amendment No. 3 is a technical amendment introduced on Report Stage. It is designed to ensure that in providing a transfer of information both teachers who are currently registered, as well as those who were registered in the past, may be identified in order to reduce the risk of error. This is necessary, as information is to be shared between the Teaching Council register on the one hand and the payroll records of the Department and the VECs on the other, in order to give effect to section 30.
With regard to amendment No. 5, concerns were raised by Deputy Brendan Smith in the Dáil as well as by the INTO about the wording of the new section, 24(10)(b). This provision referred to a limit on the length of time for which a non-registered person could be employed in a teaching position. The purpose of amendment No. 5 is to provide clarity and consistency within the regulations to be drafted under this legislation. It changed the wording so that the Bill would not refer to an unregistered person being employed “in a teaching position”, but rather that his or her employment would be “in place of a registered teacher”. This follows a similar approach taken in other provisions of the Bill.
When is it proposed to sit again?
At 10.30 a.m. tomorrow.