540. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Education and Youth if a teacher pursuing a complaint before the Workplace Relations Commission, the Labour Court or under protected disclosures legislation is required to exhaust or engage with internal school complaints procedures in order to avail of statutory protections. [64919/26]

Under Section 24 of the Education Act, 1998 (as amended) the Board of Management is the employer of teachers and other staff of the school. In the case of schools established or maintained by an Education and Training Board (ETB), the relevant ETB is the employer in accordance with the Education and Training Boards Act 2013.

It is the Board of Management or ETB, as applicable, that employ the teachers at the school. Accordingly, whereas the Department provide funding and policy direction for schools, the Department does not have legal powers to instruct schools to follow a particular course of direction with regards to individual complaint cases, or to investigate individual complaints except where the complaint involves a refused enrolment, expulsion or suspension, in accordance with Section 29 of the 1998 Education Act.

In terms of employment rights related matters, it is considered good practice to engage with the employer in the first instance using the relevant internal workplace procedures before making a referral to the WRC or Labour Court. However, there is no statutory restriction preventing an employee from availing of both the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) and the Labour Court as part of the established mechanisms for resolving employment disputes.

Under the Act, a worker in a public body such as a school generally raises a protected disclosure internally by reporting to their employer via designated internal channels and procedures, either orally or in writing, to a designated, impartial person appointed to handle reports and follow up. If no such designated person is in place they can also report to a designated "prescribed person" (an external oversight or regulatory body outside the school) if the matter falls under that body's statutory functions, report to the relevant Government Minister (or Minister of State) if the worker is or was employed in a public body and either received no/inadequate feedback from prior reports, reasonably believes the head of the public body is complicit, or reasonably believes there is an imminent/manifest danger to the public interest or submit a report the Office of the Protected Disclosures Commissioner(OPDC).