Under the Teaching Council Acts 2001-2015 the Teaching Council is the body with the statutory authority and responsibility for the regulation of the teaching profession in Ireland including the registration of teachers in the State.
The Teaching Council registers teachers under the Teaching Council Act 2001-2015 and in line with the www.teachingcouncil.ie/assets/uploads/2025/10/SI.2025.0482_TC_Registration_Regulations.pdf
As set out in the Schedule of the Regulations, the Council registers teachers under five routes of registration: Route 1 - Primary, Route 2 - Post-primary, Route 3 - Further Education, Route 4 - Other and Route 5 - Student Teacher. The qualification requirements for each route are set down in the Schedule of the Regulations.
The Teaching Council is the regulator of the teaching profession in Ireland. Its role is to protect the public by promoting and regulating professional standards in teaching. This is discharged through the statutory registration of teachers, ensuring a highly qualified teaching profession, whose members meet and uphold high standards of professional competence and conduct.
Fully qualified teachers who have qualified outside of the Republic of Ireland are eligible to apply for registration with the Teaching Council. All applications from teachers who qualified abroad are processed in line with the EU Directive 2005/36/EC and are assessed in the same manner, regardless of whether they qualified within or outside the EU. All applications are individually assessed.
The recruitment and appointment of teachers to fill teaching posts is a matter for the individual school authority, subject to procedures agreed under Section 24 of the Education Act 1998 (as amended by the Education (Amendment) Act 2012).
In accordance with Department Circulars 0044/2019 and 0031/2011, schools are required to employ appropriately qualified and registered teachers and ensure that unemployed teachers should be offered employment in preference to those who have retired. All registered teachers, whether qualified in the State of overseas, can be employed in accordance with those circulars.
3.2 of Chapter 2 of Circular 0044/2019 (primary sector) sets out the route of registration requirements for the primary school settings:
A person who has been registered Route 4 (Other) with the Teaching Council satisfies the registration requirements for employment in Special Classes in mainstream Primary Schools/SET Posts, Special Schools and Special Schools where a proportion of the pupils attending are of post-primary age and where second level programmes are being provided e.g. Junior Certificate School Programme (JCSP), Junior Cycle Level 2 Learning Programmes (L2LPs).
In accordance with section 1.1 of Department Circular 0031/2011, schools should ensure that people appointed to teach are registered teachers with qualifications appropriate to the sector and suitable to the post for which they are employed. In a post primary school teachers are required to be registered Route 2 with the Teaching Council and have qualifications in the subjects for the post they are appointed to in order to receive incremental salary.
A teacher who is not appropriately qualified and registered in accordance with Department circulars, or a teacher who is unregistered and is being employed by a school subject to the restrictions set out in the relevant Department circulars, will be paid at the unqualified rate.
Department payroll is operated primarily based on the route of registration and the incremental scale, as well as for post-holders in schools. As set out under Circular 83/17, qualification allowances are not payable to teachers who entered teaching on or after 1 February 2012.
Circular 0054/2026 outlines provision for an allowance associated with posts in special schools, however the allowance is attached to the post, rather than the post-holder so is not based on the qualifications profile of the teacher.
