721 unvetted teachers may have their pay stopped

More than 700 teachers risk having their pay stopped as their failure to apply for Garda vetting leaves them unable to renew their professional registration by this evening’s deadline.

Nearly half of the 721 teachers who are at risk of being unable to register with the Teaching Council have not yet responded at all to numerous attempts to make contact by the council since January.

They are among almost 6,700 teachers whose council registration is due for renewal today, which this year, for the first time, requires them to apply to be vetted.

While vetting disclosures have been received by the council in respect of 5,414 people, and a response from the Garda vetting bureau is awaited for another 542, the rest are now in danger of not being able to renew their registration.

Because of the enforcement of the 2006 Teaching Council Act since January 2014, only teachers who are registered can be paid by the Department of Education or their local education and training board (ETB) for work in the country’s 4,000 primary or second level schools, or further education centres.

Vetting by An Garda Síochána has been a requirement for initial registration for all newly qualified teachers for several years.

However, the process of retrospectively vetting around 33,000 longer-serving teachers is only beginning this year, starting with those whose registration renewals fall due today.

The Teaching Council said earlier this month that more than 1,100 people had not yet satisfied the requirement to apply. That included 711 who had not yet taken the first step by responding to the council invitation, and 425 who had done so but had still to complete the second and final stage of the application process.

By yesterday, the total had fallen to 721, including 354 who had not responded at all to contact about the issue.

The council told the Irish Examiner that 179 teachers have partially complied and begun the process, but have not yet submitted an application to the bureau; 188 more had documentation returned to them, or had not submitted their printed documentation.

“All these teachers have a registration renewal date of March 28, 2017, and have received multiple communications,” said a council spokesperson.

A breakdown was not available of the numbers in primary, second-level, or further education sectors who had yet to apply for Garda vetting.

The council has been notified by a number of teachers who have retired and says it is possible that some others do not wish to renew their registration due to retirement.

Further groups of teachers, whose registration comes up for renewal later this year, have already been asked to begin the vetting application process or will be asked to do so in the coming months.