Written Answers Nos. 125-127
125. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of days paid cover available to teachers employed by Education and Training Boards, who are elected members of local authorities, to facilitate attendance at council meetings; if permitted cover days have to be taken in full or may be availed of in part; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45449/14]
Amharc ar fhreagraEducation and Training Boards are statutory bodies with their own corporate status established under the Education and Training Boards Act 2013. Where a teacher in an Education and Training board school is an elected member of a local authority, paid absence of up to ten school days in a school year may be availed of in order to attend council meetings where such meetings are held during school opening hours. Prior approval must be obtained from the Board, who, in approving such leave, must take into consideration the welfare and educational needs of the students. Substitute cover is not provided by my Department for such absences and the approval of full or part days is a matter for the Education and Training Board.
126. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills if school management bodies, who employ teachers for whom Teaching Council registration is subsequently not completed for more than the five days beyond which unregistered teachers are ineligible for salary payments, are paid the salary for such teachers in full and permitted to retain the full salary payment even if the management body is not permitted to pay it to an affected unregistered teacher; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45450/14]
Amharc ar fhreagra127. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will consider changing the requirement for teachers to register with the teaching council from an annual registration to a three or five yearly renewal requirement so as to avoid the situation where teachers who miss the annual deadline for registration by more than five days are blocked from receiving salary payments; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45451/14]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 126 and 127 together.
Section 30 of the Teaching Council Act became operational on 28th January 2014. From then all persons employed as teachers in recognised schools must be registered with the Teaching Council, the professional standards body for teachers, in order to be paid by the State.
More than 90,000 teachers are now registered with the Teaching Council.
The commencement of Section 30 was widely publicised for several years in advance. In addition, teachers were notified of the changes through their payslips and through targeted communications in the preceding months to outline the change and to encourage registration.
To continue to be paid from public funds, teachers are advised to maintain their registration with the Teaching Council and to apply to renew their registration in a timely manner. The Teaching Council provides an online renewal service as well as other means for renewal. While it is each teacher's responsibility to ensure their registration is up to date, the Council has a practice of alerting teachers when their renewal date is coming near, and there is a period of one month after the renewal date where late renewals can be processed without affecting the teacher's registration status. I believe these measures are fair and reasonable.
Alongside Section 30, the Education Act 1998 (Unregistered Persons) Regulations 2014 were also put in place. This allows schools only in urgent or unforeseen cases to engage an unregistered person for up to 5 days. This caters, in a measured and appropriate way, i.e. where there is a short-term absence because no registered teacher is available.
While all matters in relation to the registration of teachers are kept under review, there are no plans at present to change the law to provide for registration for more than one year at a time.
