The paper considers two issues; the EU policy backdrop against which new models of teacher formation are argued to have emerged and are being developed, and the ongoing instantiation of related values and practices into the Irish teacher education arena. It draws on ongoing research into policy for and around teacher formation in Ireland (McMorrough 2016) and recent work in relation to the increasingly neo-liberal modalities of public management and policy making in the Ireland context (Lynch, Grummel and Devine 2012; Galvin 2015). The discussion takes as a start point concepts advanced by Darling-Hammond & Lieberman (2012) concerning patterns in policy-action on teachers and teaching that emerged in many countries over the closing decades of the 20th century, particularly in parts of the United States and Europe. This policy-action seeks to move systems towards a technician-style preparation for teaching, one that often excludes meaningful contact with university and educational research linked to improving professional practice. Darling-Hammond & Lieberman contrasted this with a professional formation that is university based, that is informed by research, that has a strong focus on developing the student-teacher's pedagogical knowledge and ability to apply that knowledge, and that includes a strong clinical component (cf Hislop 2013). The present paper considers the changing landscape of teacher formation in Ireland, it addressing both structural / institutional changes resulting from the DES sponsored Report of the International Review Panel on the Structure of Initial Teacher Education Provision in Ireland (Sahlberg, Furlong and Munn 2012) into consolidation and surplus, and the shifting value bases of teachers and teaching resulting from governance and regulatory activity by the Teaching Council ( Ireland).