42,000 teachers have yet to be vetted

The Teaching Council of Ireland has said it will need more resources to tackle the backlog of 42,000 teachers who still have not been vetted.

The figure emerged at a meeting of the Oireachtas Education Committee yesterday, with Fianna Fáil Seanad spokeswoman on education Averil Power claiming she was shocked at the number of teachers who had not been vetted.

The National Parents Council voiced concern and said it was questionable whether the Garda National Vetting Unit had the capacity to deal with that backlog if new laws requiring anyone working with children to be vetted are introduced.