Debate contribution: Education Inspections Bill: Second Stage

Debate contribution by Mr Gerry Carroll on 1 June 2026.

MLA

Mr Gerry Carroll

Party at the time

People Before Profit Alliance

Date

1 June 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Education Inspections Bill: Second Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5582103

Read the official Assembly record

Text

A lot of scorn was poured on the fact that trade unions got in touch with MLAs, with some suggesting that it was political. God forbid that trade unionists get involved in political debates. I welcome the contact from trade unionists from the NASUWT and from the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) as well as principals and others who emailed me and, I am sure, other Members over the weekend. That was important. It is important that our legislation be shaped by the people who are primarily affected by it, who, in this case, are education workers and teachers. I declare an interest: I have three siblings involved in the teaching sector. The Bill is a Trojan horse. Nobody disputes that religious education needs reform and oversight. The Supreme Court was clear on that, and schools deserve urgent clarity. Nobody in the Chamber should be in any doubt about that. However, not just in my view but in that of many people, the Minister has deliberately used that legal necessity as cover for something far more sinister, which is a provision designed to punish teachers — I repeat: punish teachers — for taking lawful industrial action. I am concerned that it could create a chill factor for anyone to be told that a Minister can dictate to unions what action they can or cannot take. I fear that that would send a bad message and set a bad precedent. We have to be honest about what is happening. The two issues in the Bill are entirely separate and should be treated as such. The religious education provisions arise from a specific court judgement. The ETI proposals are something else entirely. They are highly controversial, have serious implications for workers' rights and remain deeply contested across the teaching and education sector. I am opposed to the Bill not just because of how it would punish teachers in that regard but because it could and would set a precedent.

The Executive have underfunded education for years. Schools are in debt, buildings are crumbling, SEN is in crisis and teachers are dealing with workloads that the Department's independent review described as "unmanageable". Rather than break that cycle and invest properly in the profession, the Minister wants to muzzle teachers who dare to challenge his agenda. The NASUWT is in a formal trade dispute with the Minister and the Department because they have failed to implement the recommendations of that workload review. To introduce these proposals against that backdrop is to act entirely in bad faith, and the Minister knows it. It damages trust between teachers and the Department at exactly the moment when meaningful engagement is needed most. Teachers do not want to take industrial action; they want to do what they do every day — educating the next generation — but they have been doing that in an increasingly unsustainable and unsafe environment. When teachers take industrial action, they do so on behalf of the entire school community. An attack on them for that is an attack on the entire trade union movement and, more broadly, on people who believe in democracy. The Minister said that the legislation is just about safeguarding. The short Bill — it consists of four pages — uses the phrase:

"It is unacceptable professional conduct by a teacher"

five times. It is clear what the Minister is trying to do. If we were to take him at his word that he really cared about safeguarding, he would deal head-on with the following risks: the fact that our children are being taught in schools that are riddled with black mould, which is unacceptable; the fact that our classroom assistants and teachers face physical violence in the course of their work; and the fact that our education workforce, including school leaders, has passed the point of burnout and exhaustion, because staff have been managing societal crises in mental health, poverty and SEN complexity with little or no support. Whatever their view on religious education reform — I think that we all agree that change is overdue — I urge all MLAs to ask themselves whether threatening teachers with sanctions for taking part in lawful industrial action will fix our broken education system. I oppose the Bill. Everyone in the Chamber who says that they value our teachers should vote against it as well.

724 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:47 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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