Legal rush to avoid disruption to schools

Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan will have to rush through law in the coming months to allow the Teaching Council to continue vetting thousands of teachers for substitution work and avoid chaos in the running of schools.

While the Department of Justice is ready to begin changes to vetting legislation, putting the system of Garda clearance for anyone working with children on a statutory basis, the Department of Education is concerned about the potential for a hugely disruptive effect on schools.

It is particularly concerned for the situation when substitute teachers are engaged, as each short-term employment would require a new vetting clearance.

In order to avoid this situation, legislation is being drafted to amend the Teaching Council Act and give authority to the profession’s regulatory body to continue its current role and hold a vetting record for individual teachers. But it needs to publish and pass the law in the next two months, because the Department of Justice is required by an EU directive to give effect to its own already-enacted legislative changes by the start of December.

“This gives a very tight timeframe for this department to have the aforementioned amendments made to the Teaching Council legislation and to have all the associated practical arrangements in place so as to minimise the risk of disruption in the school system,” Ms O’Sullivan has been told in a briefing note from Department of Education officials.

A spokesperson told the Irish Examiner that the legislation, which would facilitate the school system in meeting obligations under the vetting law, “would not be over-complex”.

However, it will not be ready for Ms O’Sullivan to introduce in the Dáil for several weeks, having been the subject of discussions with the Attorney General’s office and legislative drafting officials over the summer.

According to the document, released under the Freedom of Information Acts, of the 87,000 teachers currently on the Teaching Council register, around 48,000 have been Garda vetted. The department says it is intended to begin vetting almost 40,000 remaining teachers once the statutory arrangements are in place later this year

“It will be a matter for the minister for justice and equality to determine when this can commence (there may be resource constraints in the vetting bureau) and at what intervals teachers will be re-vetted,” the note to Ms O’Sullivan says.

The planned changes to the law governing the Teaching Council would also strengthen its capacity, through its fitness-to-teach provisions, to ensure anyone it deems unsuitable to teach will not be registered as a teacher.

Since the end of January, the commencement of an existing part of the same act means anyone who is not on the council’s register cannot be paid for teaching work in a publicly-funded school.

But to avoid schools having to close at short notice, exceptions are allowed for limited time periods.