Fine Gael TD for Dun Laoghaire / Rathdown, Mary Mitchell O’Connor, has today (Saturday) called a blunder by the Teaching Council of Ireland in a recent ballot as a ridiculous waste of time and money.

“A recent ballot by the Teaching Council of Ireland to appoint new members to the Council has had to be scrapped and redone due to a typographical error on the ballot form, of which its 79,000 members are eligible to vote on.

“This is another example of how the Council is wasting valuable time and money and is an embarrassment to the teaching profession.

“The Teaching Council employs 23 staff, has 37 members, a director and receives approximately seven million euro a year from its 79,000 members. It is also occupying a NAMA building in Maynooth but has now decided that this building is not big enough and is looking to purchase a larger office.

“I strongly believe that the Council is effectively another Quango and it should be abolished and the services it provides should come from the Department of Education.

“Every teacher in this country has to pay 90 euro a year to the Council in order to be recognised as a teacher in this country or you cannot be paid by the Department of Education. However, I fail to see what exactly the Council actually does and where the money it receives goes to.

“The roles of that of the Council and the Inspectorate are blurred and no one quite knows who is supposed to be doing what.

“I would like to know what exactly the Council does with the seven million euro it receives each year and I am urging the Minister for Education, Ruairí to review this situation and see how the Council can be absorbed into the Department of Education.