Minister for Education Jan O'Sullivan has announced new plans to regulate the teaching profession by bringing in vetting for all teachers, and the introduction of "fitness to teach" hearings.

This comes ahead of tomorrow’s industrial action where almost 350,000 students will be forced to stay at home as second Level teachers strike for a second time, in just under two months , over junior cert reforms.

Minister for Education and Skills Jan O Sullivan spoke to Lunchtime with Jonathan Healy today about the reasons for the strikes and said she was unaware the strike was about resources: "'The teachers haven't told me that this is a resource issue."

"I have great faith in the teachers.

I think the leadership of the teachers should reconsider what's going on here. They're taking children out of school. The threat of another strike is really worrying for the students, particularly the Leaving Cert students."

"It's not right to do this.

On the much debated issue of whether Fine Gael may go into coalition with Fianna Fáil and Kathleen Lynch's comments yesterday, she stated: "I agree with Kathleen Lynch's view in relation to the interview but I can understand that Minister Coveney was asked a question and he answered it as honestly as he felt he could."

"What we've to concentrate on is doing our job in Government and continuing with the recovery.

"We disagree on some things, we're two different political parties, but I think Ministers are working very well together on a personal level."